Born and raised here in Idaho it is no surprise that Boise ranks #1 for mothers, below is a good read on the top ten places for mothers as ranked by the Daily Best.
Joshua Groesbeck
208-353-7131 or josh@homeswithjosh.com
www.homeswithjosh.com or www.idshortsale.com
BS Top – Mother Cities For Mother’s Day, The Daily Beast takes America’s 200 largest cities and crunches the numbers—from child care to maternal health to pampering—to determine where moms have it best.
On Mother’s Day, everything revolves around Mom. But what about the other 364 days? The Daily Beast tried to determine which cities celebrate that holiday every day. And which might induce fits worthy of Mommy Dearest.
Like motherhood itself, the conditions needed to make moms across the country happy are complicated. So we tried to find factors that are universal, whether working or stay-at-home, big city or small city, North or South, and then combed the data of the country’s 200 largest cities to find out which offer the best quality of life for mothers. (Almost all the factors apply to parents generally. It’s just not dad’s turn this month.)
“Isolation is the biggest problem for moms,” says Dr. Amy Tiemann, creator of MojoMom.com and author of MojoMom: Nurturing Your Self While Raising a Family. While we measured the relative number of other mothers in each city, Dr. Tiemann stressed that moms—especially new moms—should, “find their tribe. Find other mothers you fit in with… that’s going to make all the difference.”
Quality health care is also essential. “If you look across the country, there is a lot of variation in terms of the quality of care at different hospitals,” says Dr. Richard May, co-author of HealthGrades’ recent study on Women’s Health in American Hospitals. Access to good care for mother and child, May says, greatly reduces anxiety, and boosts happiness.
To compile the rankings, we started with the list of the 200 largest cities according to 2008 data from the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey. They included all cities with an estimated population over 121,000. To rank the cities, we looked at several facets affecting the quality of life for resident mothers:
• Mothers-per-capita: the percentage of mothers in each city with one or more children under 18 years old, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
• Educational quality: the overall caliber of public schools in each city based on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best. Scores were culled from GreatSchools.org, which ranks schools based on standardized tests. (The three cities that weren’t measured by GreatSchools were assigned the national median.)
• Child care: the number of child-care workers per child 5 years old and under in each city according to its Metropolitan Statistical Area, based on 2008 data from Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008 and U.S. Census population data.
• Maternity health specialists: the availability of maternity specialists (in obstetrics and gynecology or maternal and fetal medicine) based on the number of recognized practitioners, per resident mom, in each city, according to HealthGrades.com, an independent health-care ratings company. HealthGrades doctors must be affiliated with a high-quality hospital, free of state sanctions, disciplinary actions, malpractice judgments, and monetary settlements in the last five years, and be board certified in his/her practice specialty.
• Mother’s Day pampering: in honor of the Mother’s Day holiday on Sunday, Citysearch.com ranked per-capita searches for “Mother’s Day Brunch,” as well as the evergreen mom-pampering category “Hair Salon” in each city to provide insight into which city’s residents are looking to take care of the mothers in their lives.
The first—and the worst—are both state capitals sitting near the country’s northern border. Where are moms celebrating? See below.
#1, Boise, ID
Moms-per-capita: 61 out of 200
Child care: 20 out of 200
Schools: 7 out of 10
Maternity care: 63 of out 200
Pampering: 86 out of 200
#2, Lexington, KY
Moms-per-capita: 60
Child care: 11
Schools: 7 out of 10
Maternity care: 64
Pampering: 37
Best Mother’s Day Brunch: Greentree Tea Room
#3, Lincoln, NE
Moms-per-capita: 80
Child care: 3
Schools: 5 out of 10
Maternity care: 145
Pampering: 24
#4, Coral Springs, FL
Moms-per-capita: 18
Child care: 40
Schools: 8 out of 10
Maternity care: 97
Pampering: 161
#5, Mobile, AL
Moms-per-capita: 62
Child care: 33
Schools: 6 out of 10
Maternity care: 45
Pampering: 9
Best Mother’s Day Brunch: Ruth’s Chris Steak House
#6, Elk Grove, CA
Moms-per-capita: 3
Child care: 54
Schools: 8 out of 10
Maternity care: 176
Pampering: 160
#7, Bellevue, WA
Moms-per-capita: 135
Child care: 31
Schools: 9 out of 10
Maternity care: 40
Pampering: 120
Best Mother’s Day Brunch: Daniel’s Broiler
#8, Overland Park, KS
Moms-per-capita: 46
Child care: 46
Schools: 8 out of 10
Maternity care: 51
Pampering: 59
#9, Augusta, GA
Moms-per-capita: 53
Child care: 67
Schools: 3 out of 10
Maternity care: 33
Pampering: 30
#10, Columbus, OH
Moms-per-capita: 1
Child care: 82
Schools: 5 out of 10
Maternity care: 142
Pampering: 94
