As the wife of a travel nurse, Leslie Elms has lived all over the map. But when her family decided they wanted to settle down for good, one location kept calling them back: Norman, Oklahoma. In this episode of Why I Moved, Leslie shares a few reasons she decided to move to Oklahoma, and why she says she can’t think of a better place to raise a family.
My husband was a travel nurse, and one of our locations we ended up traveling to as a family was Norman, Oklahoma. We loved it so much that we ended up staying here for a whole year. After our year was up, we ended up moving to another location and it, honestly, wasn’t the greatest. So my husband decided that we were not going to travel anymore.
At that point, we needed to figure out where we wanted to raise our family. We have family in the Dallas-Forth Worth area, so that was automatically a place that my husband thought of, but I remembered how happy we were in Norman, Oklahoma. So I brought that up to him. He was super excited. He loved the hospital that he worked at.
Family Friendly
Oklahoma is an amazing place to raise our family. I’m a stay-at-home mom that doesn’t like to stay home, so I like to be able to take my daughter out and also feel safe while doing so.
Everything here is family-friendly. We love going to the park. We’ve gone to the Tulip Festival, a pickle festival — we’re a big fan of pickles in our household. We love taking our daughter to OU gymnastics meets and OU tailgates.
Nice People
Another reason I wanted to bring my family back to Oklahoma was the people. The people are super special here in Oklahoma. Everyone is super friendly. Neighbors will check in on you. “I’m here if you need me for anything,” kind of thing. You have that feeling of community and friendliness. And let’s be real, Texas is supposed to be the “friendliest state,” but I would honestly say that Oklahoma is so much better.
Little Traffic
Another reason we chose Oklahoma was the lack of traffic. The Texas traffic is something completely different. People are angry. People are mad. I don’t know how people do that every single day.
Since my husband has to be at the hospital within 30 minutes, we had to live basically in the heart of downtown Dallas. That’s not the greatest place to raise a family. I had a lot of anxiety being in this big city, feeling like such a small fish, and it was being passed on to my daughter and my husband, which just wasn’t a healthy environment whatsoever.
Now that we’re in Norman, I feel like I can actually breathe. Commutes are easy. You can get somewhere in 20 minutes, even if you’re going to the city. My family is a lot happier. I’m a lot happier, and it’s just such a great place to raise our family.
Highly Affordable
One of the big reasons we chose Oklahoma was the cost of living. When we lived in the DFW, we were all cramped into a tiny little condo, and we were super unhappy. Fast forward to when we moved to Norman, we were paying the exact same for an almost 3,000 square-foot house.
Currently, we’re renting, but when we do decide to buy, we’re going to have so many more options than we would down in the DFW — all because we’re going to be within 30 minutes of the hospital because there’s no traffic.
Overall, Oklahoma is way more affordable than anywhere else we’ve lived. From gas to groceries, events that you want to maybe take your kids to. It’s just so much better for your wallet. Period.
I honestly can’t think of a better place to raise my family than Oklahoma. I’m so glad we moved to Oklahoma.
