u/thenorthgiant

I posted this question to the Stratford community, and many suggested I look at Guelph as well.

We're a family of four (two little kids under 4), and a dog and are currently living downtown in the heart of the city. Husband has been born and raised here, and I moved here 11 years ago. We've been feeling 'priced out' for a while, but recently, things have started to feel dangerous too. A mentally ill woman assaulted and randomly pepper-sprayed my husband and 3yr old daughter in a Shopper Drug Mart unprovoked. Police were called, but she got away before they arrived. There was a double stabbing two streets over from where we live, fights are constantly breaking out in the subway, drug use rampant in children's parks to the point where we have found needles in the wood chips.

I could go on, but all that is to say, it's feeling untenable raising young children here, and my daughter has started having night terrors ever since the Shoppers Drug Mart incident. We've been thinking about moving for a while, but it seems like now is the time to really do it. We both work remotely, so we can move anywhere in Ontario but are looking for a family-friendly place, liberal-leaning, which feels safer than Toronto lol.

My questions are:

1. What is it like for young kids in Guelph?
2. We are a mixed race, mixed religion household. Frankly speaking, what is the level of 'openness' and acceptance in the city?
3. What is the social scene for millennials raising kids? We'd know nobody there, would we be able to make a community?
4. Are there any neighbourhoods we should stay away from?
5. Would you move here, if you were from elsewhere?
6. What are winters like there?

Thanks!!!

We're a family of four (two little kids under 4), and a dog and are currently living downtown in the heart of the city. Husband has been born and raised here, and I moved here 11 years ago. We've been feeling 'priced out' for a while, but recently, things have started to feel dangerous too. A mentally ill woman assaulted and randomly pepper-sprayed my husband and 3yr old daughter in a Shopper Drug Mart unprovoked. Police were called, but she got away before they arrived. There was a double stabbing two streets over from where we live, fights are constantly breaking out in the subway, drug use rampant in children's parks to the point where we have found needles in the wood chips.

I could go on, but all that is to say, it's feeling untenable raising young children here, and my daughter has started having night terrors ever since the Shoppers Drug Mart incident. We've been thinking about moving for a while, but it seems like now is the time to really do it. We both work remotely, so we can move anywhere in Ontario but are looking for a family-friendly place, liberal-leaning, which feels safer than Toronto lol.

My questions are:

1. What is it like for young kids in Stratford?
2. We are a mixed race, mixed religion household. Frankly speaking, what is the level of 'openness' and acceptance in the city?
3. What is the social scene for millennials raising kids? We'd know nobody there, would we be able to make a community?
4. Are there any neighbourhoods we should stay away from?
5. Would you move here, if you were from elsewhere?
6. What are winters like there?

Thanks!!!

If there's a reddit community that can help me with this, I know it's this one.

For some reason, I find it so hard to find books that 'feel smart'... and recently I've been finding myself getting sooo bored where the main story is solely about the pining, with nothing else going on... girl meets boy... they resist... they get together... story over. I want world building, stakes, books that 'feel smart,' I basically want to drown myself in competency.

Since I know this likely feels really vague, here are some examples of books that have scratched this itch:

1. Bringing down the duke by Evvie dunmore (I legit learned more about the suffragist movement from this book than I did from school lol, and loved how much of a hustler the FMC was.)
2. Match me if you can by SEP (Never thought I'd get so into the world of American football, but here we are - again, loved the FMC, and the power dynamics at play).
3. Love Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood (Loved her depiction of postgraduate degree life, and really enjoyed learning about the difference between theoretical physics vs experimental physics)
4. The Hating Game by Sally Thorne (ok, while her depiction of the publishing industry was kinda...unbelievable, I *did* believe the workplace culture and the stakes felt high!)
5. The Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning (I get that this series is absolutely unhinged, but the world building and the author's dedication to the insanity was 10/10 and I am obsessed, and again, super strong FMC).

Basically, i want smart female leads, a world the author really spent time building/learning, and EXTRA points if its enemies to lovers, but not required. Open to all genres, sci-fi romance, romantasy, contemporary...

I hope this is not too controversial but authors that I really cannot stand because they fall short of this "genre" (for lack of better words) are Tessa Bailey, Meghan Quinn, Emily Henry, Sarah Hogle, and Scarlett St. Claire... to me, they read as just too generic and cookie cutter romcom!!!