This was something my SIL said, back before I ever met her, to Mrs. Hela. She was worried about her kids falling prey to drugs, crime and sex in Southern California.

Guess what happened after she moved back to Utah? 4 of her 6 kids developed drug problems, 2 have had kids out of wedlock, and 1 has spent much of his time as a guest of the Utah Correctional system.

Now, I'm not saying that they wouldn't necessarily have gotten into trouble in SoCal. But being around a bunch of mos in semi-rural Utah sure didn't help them much.

My family moved to Rural Ut. County for it's better environment. I found that kids didn't smoke pot much, they chewed tobacco, drank and screwed in abundance though.

In rural, probably 90% mormon towns, kids drink and have sex. There isn't much else to do. It's kind of a party on Friday and Saturday, repent on Sunday thing.

that is in ALL rural areas!! (the sex and drinking etc.)

It's not just rural Utah. Pretty much rural anywhere has drugs etc. There seem to be quite a few mormon girls who start having sex really young too.

When I was young it was booze and pot. Then later it was booze and cocaine. Now I hear it's booze and meth. And there seem to be a lot of 30-40 year old mormons hooked on pain pills, especially the women. There's not much to do in small town America but get fucked up.

Plus when times get rough many people turn to dealing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2010 10:14PM by Charley.

Lets not forget all the anti depressants that women in Ut have to take to deal with all the stress of the morg.

Setting aside the implications of mormondom, Utah is a beautiful state. Skiing, hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities abound. The education system is quite good and the economy is steady to strong.

If you can insulate yourself against the Morg halo effect, I think Utah would be a great place to raise a family.

Just sayin'...

Ron

You're kidding, right? Utah schools have the lowest per capita expenditure on students. That's right. Last place out of 50, behind every other state in the US, including perpetual basket cases like Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, etc.

The natural environment in Utah is spectacular, but the human environment and culture sucks. I would never consider sending my kids to public schools in Utah or move there myself.

anon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You're kidding, right? Utah schools have the
> lowest per capita expenditure on students.
> That's right. Last place out of 50, behind every
> other state in the US, including perpetual basket
> cases like Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana,
> Alabama, etc.
>
> The natural environment in Utah is spectacular,
> but the human environment and culture sucks. I
> would never consider sending my kids to public
> schools in Utah or move there myself.


Show me. My data shows higher education per capita is #6 and secondary elementary is 46 (which sux, I agree). I'm open to learn something new.

Ron

Great! Thanks.

My kids went to Utah elem (very young) and then we moved to Texas. Texas sucks. Maybe I just thought Utah's was better. Regardless, spending isn't the only measure of quality edcuation, but it has to be a large part of it.

... a man and his family moved into our Layton ward. He went on and on ... and on about how grateful he was that he had FINALLY got to the point that he had got his family to UTAH where it was so much a safer environment for his family.

And now the rest of the story ... his teen daughter got pregnant and his son arrested for manufacturing pipe bombs in their basement. .... yeah "SAFE" that's the word that comes to my mind every time I hear "Utah" -- NOT.

LOL anyway, it makes me laugh now at that guy's naivety -- trusting the safety of his kid's lives to the hands of Utahans!!!

And there's a Mormon bishop on practically every corner who is willing to take your young daughter into his office and interrogate her behind closed doors.

Those are the words told to my by my niece who lives outside SLC. She said "everyone pretends Utah is safe and good but it is not. It is very bad, drugs are everywhere in my school (Shes 14), there are child molesters everywhere and my school has several preganant girls and has had 12 over doses this year. It is bad here and everyone walks around with a smile".

She lives in a very nice home in a very nice neighborhood. A couple years ago when we went for a visit her mother was discussing what a problem orgies and sex parties were in the church for the youth. She was in the young womens presidency and insistent it was the same everywhere. I told her it is not a common problem where we live in So. Ca. I told her our kids highschool did not have even one over dose last year and sex parties and orgies were not common place. Of course she just thought we were out of the loop, but we reminded her we have 2 teenage girls who are very popular, top of their class and Free Thinkers they and their friends spent a lot of time in our home. My wife also is in the young womens presidency and the orgies they are having in UT. are not everywhere like she thinks.

Utah is a dangerous place....out of the mouth of babes

To be perfectly frank, I don't see those problems much in my (Orange County, CA) area, which is middle to upper middle class. Even the Mormons here don't have so many children that that can't manage them, with three to four being the norm. You don't see kids raising kids Utah-style. I even know Utah-raised LDS parents (granted, they are from SLC, not Provo) who say they like it here more than Utah, and not just because of the beach: they like the diversity and variety of people seen here.

At the same time, parents have enough time to really pay attention and give quality time to their kids. People (LDS and non) keep their kids busy with academics and sports to the point where they don't have time to get into trouble, let alone think about it. And being SoCal, there is always something to do here, unlike rural Utah.

Without Utah-style peer pressure, some slacking and/or deviation from TBM church attendance occurs: maybe not all boys make Eagle, a significant % of kids drop out of early am seminary, particularly if they are doing well academically and athletically (or excelling in other extracirriculars, such as band or music or school organizations). I have seen some LDS parents here, when faced with so many forces competing for a kid's time (homework, extracirriculars, non-school club level sports, etc.), demote seminary to a back-burner priority, cognizant that forcing a kid to study religion at 6:30 am may be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

There aren't enough LDS kids here to apply peer pressure to make a Seminary skipper feel bad about oneself, the parents know that most likely the kid's social circle will include non-LDS, and maybe they just hope the kid will find a TBM mate at BYU. But they don't tend to make their kid's life a hell on earth, unless serving in a high visibility calling (bishopric, RS presidency, etc.). I'm aware of what rabidly LDS parents can do mainly from having read this board, than from having seen it in action here in SoCal.

I have some friends whose son's best friend is from a part member family, who was sent to a Catholic high school (superior academics) along with my friends' (Catholic) kids. I think he did have to do LDS BSA (that's how my friends learned he was LDS, after having known him for TEN years: they inquired why he attended a non-local scout troop---i.e. his family didn't ooze Mormonism, nor did they pull him out of an AYSO championship playoff if a game happened to fall on Sunday) but got out of Seminary, due to the lengthy commute from home to school. LDS Inc conducts early a.m. seminary at a ward near the PUBLIC high schools, but they usually make no provision for Seminary near a Catholic high school since the assumption is that very few of their members are found in Catholic schools. As a result, he did not have to attend Seminary. He is now at college at Perdue in Indiana, and hopefully will have a normal life.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2010 12:17PM by PtLoma.

Pt Loma,

The schools in Irvine and CDM all have better scores than Mater Dei, SM, Servite,etc. Why spend the money sending your kids to those schools when the public schools are better.

One thing I noticed about Utah Mos....They sure have alot of teen pregnancies for being so 'proper'. There were sure alot of ads for LDS social services promoting adoption to single moms when I was there! I also noticed alot of suicides too. Probably pressure to conform.

I thought it would be cute if my daughter had some friends there when she visited. So I saw some girls there here age and got her connected. She told me that they were much worse than the kids she hung out with in So Cal. And she hung with some pretty wild kids down here.

What I have noticed about Utah parents is they "check out". They seem to think that because they are surrounded by other Mormons, their kids will be fine and they (the parents) don't have to be as vigilant.

Plus they are soooo busy with their church activities, that they don't seem to notice what is going on in their own homes.

Also, they tend to leave the care of the younger children to the older kids. Sometimes that works out, but I know of many situations where the older kids have victimized the younger ones who were too scared to tell.

I've lived in Utah basically my entire life (with the exception of spending a few years living in SoCal and Idaho) and it's been very interesting to see how Utah really isn't much different or better than that of say, for example, Southern California. Sure, you could argue that crime is more active in SoCal, which it is, but as far as drugs and sex, Utah is right up there. Over the past few years i've noticed that kids are doing just as many drugs, fooling around sexually with other people, and getting drunk on the weekends just as much, if not more than kids anywhere else in the US. The only difference is kids in Utah are a lot better at keeping those kind of things secret and hidden for the fear of being found out and damned to hell.

Because they couldn't stomach the idea of their children being raised around Mormons. They didn't want their kids to be the only "nonmembers" so they left.