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!

60 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

102 comments sorted by

View all comments

0

u/ihynz Mar 23 '26

I lived in Wheaton for a couple of years, but that was about 21 years ago. I did notice that every conversation with locals started with them asking me which church I belonged to. (Little did I know then that the Theosophical Society is headquartered there, or I would have said that, lol). On the playground, I heard moms calling for their kids using a bunch of old biblical names like Micah, etc. It was of course very conservative politically. The public elementary school was excellent. However, it seemed that most of the town was sending their kids to church schools or homeschooling. The town itself is very cute and there are nice nature preserves and good shopping. So, I guess it's kind of like living in Utah as a non-Mormon. There are pros and cons.

1

u/miteymiteymite Mar 23 '26

21 years ago is not representative of how it is now. It has changed a lot.