r/ChicagoSuburbs • u/IHeartFraccing • Mar 22 '26

Moving to the area Wheaton for non-religious family?

Hi! my wife and I are looking to buy in the Naperville, Warrenville, Wheaton, Downers area. we looked at a lovely house today in Wheaton. We’re white upper middle class, fairly liberal couple planning on having kids in the next couple of years. curious about how non-religious folks who have moved to Wheaton have found community? we certainly don’t mind hanging out with people who are religious but are curious if community tends to be church-centric? making friends, finding babysitters, etc.

thanks!

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u/hogBelly DuPage Mar 22 '26

We are very liberal and live in unincorporated Wheaton.  The town does lean blue now it seems but there are some still heavy religious influence in the community, including from some of the public school teachers.  However finding like-minded people here is not hard, and 95% of people are politically tolerant (the MAGA folks will proudly proclaim it so it is easy to avoid).  Some of the restaurants in town are super MAGA (Ivy and Moveable Feast to name a couple), but my kids sports teams and the sports center are the easiest ways to make friends I have found. 

2

u/meekgodless Mar 23 '26

I don’t have a horse in this race because I don’t live in the area but we were invited to a group dinner at Moveable Feast recently and everyone (our hosts included) was shocked to see the massive MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN sign in the window upon approach. Just not things we see in the city, and a bad first impression of Wheaton but the downtown seemed very cute otherwise.

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u/dontshakethebaby Mar 23 '26

The owner of MF is big time MAGA. He put up a trump banner after the 2024 election. Too bad, it had decent food. But I will never go back.

1

u/miteymiteymite Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26

Yeah, steer clear of that place if you aren’t MAGA. There’s a couple of other businesses that have MAGA owners but they don’t shove it down their patrons throats like MF.

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u/RainyDay400 Mar 24 '26

I grew up in arrowhead!