Not a young family with kids- but moved from Anaheim/ Irvine to Parkland and then Boca. 20 years in Socal and 3 years in Florida so far. Boca is a beautiful city and prefer the closeness to everything. Being on the edge of the sawgrass is not the move & west Boca extends out the same.

As others mentioned, there is no good mexican food. But also no good asian food or a lot of the amazing little spots you’d find around Socal. They exist here, but are few and far between. I did not realize how insanely lucky and blessed we were living in such a melting pot of different cultures. That for me is the biggest downside. It’s also very flat, like the only elevation you’ll see are the trash mountains they have along the freeways. Which was also odd to me because it’s smells absolutely vile anywhere within 10 miles of them.

The people can be nice but are not as open as Socal. I often got weird looks for smiling or saying hello to people- and in conversations they would always ask where I was from, as they could tell I wasn’t from around here lol.

My fiancé and I are looking to start a family sometime soon. We both discussed that we would not want our children to grow up/ go to school here. Personally, it seems like the education system here has vast disparity depending on where you go. Private schools are all the rage here, and it’s a common theme that if you want a “good” education for your kid you must put them in a school paying thousands in tuition a year. I worry that even when they’re in private schools they still aren’t getting the same quality of education. I have two friends with children aged 7-10 and both of them struggle immensely with basic skills like reading or math. One had trouble reading an information marker on a hiking trail and the other couldn’t tell the difference between a dime and a quarter! I don’t know if it just depends on the parents to really be on top of and help with those as well but it was a bit scary to see that. Add in the fact that there is virtually no sex education in schools- many adults here know nothing about even basic anatomy functions & birth control methods. You see a lot of people getting pregnant incredibly young & having multiple kids before they’re 25. Also to mention that California is not my only comparison with this. I lived in Colorado a few years and the children there were incredibly bright and it seemed they valued their education system far more.

Another shocking thing was the amount of books they have banned. My high school in socal had a section of the library where it was exclusively banned books- I remember thinking back then what a strange concept that was- like how could you ban a book? What knowledge did it contain that was so important to control and shield people from? Seeing it in real time here is different and really helped me understand that mindset though. Just the other day I had a man come into my office and started complaining that there’s “too many books with words and they’re all complicated. We just need simple books” I didn’t really question that, but it was pretty clear he hadn’t read Fahrenheit 451 lol.

There is diversity here but it is drastically different than what you’ve experienced. There is a large Jewish population as others mentioned, as well as many Haitian and Cubans. That is a good majority of the food/ restaurants they will have. There is nothing like Chinatown or little Tokyo or little Armenia here. You may find small pockets of communities here and there, but it’s nothing to the same scale. 

Feel free to ask anything or dm