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Move over hot girl summer- this ones for the single dads. Being a single parent means juggling a lot of responsibilities between work, caretaking, household duties, and trying to be a person. It's a lot to balance. When it comes to being a single dad, certain cities are better than others.
Lawnstarter ranked the best cities in America for single dads with consideration to child care costs, public school quality, access to parks, family-leave policies, and social support programs for dads such as parenting classes and financial assistance for children with disabilities.
The list included 200 American cities. Here's the highlights.
Suburbs
In general, suburbs are an affordable choice for parents. Though these suburbs rank best for single dads due to affordability and academics - Naperville, Illinois (No. 1), Frisco, Texas (No. 6), and Irvine, California (No. 10).
Chart Toppers
Suburbs are also generally a family-friendly choice. These suburbs ranked overall highest for family and animal friendly cities - Naperville, Illinois (No. 1), Bellevue, Washington (No. 7), Overland Park, Kansas (No. 2), Cary, North Carolina (No. 5).
Regional
The South and Midwest ranked highest for affordability of childcare. Nearly all of the top 50 cities for affordable child care are located in those two regions. This is on trend with the standard cost of living in the US as the East and West Coast trend towards being more expensive areas to live than the South and Midwest, with California ranking on of the most expensive states to live in.
Top city for childcare affordability is Sioux Falls, South Dakota. For those wanting options outside of the South and Midwest, look towards Salt Lake City, Utah (No. 39), Scottsdale, Arizona (No. 44), and Buffalo, New York (No. 48).
(A)lone Star State
In terms of work-life balance, Texas came in last. Outside of these three cities - Frisco (No. 6), McKinney (No. 11), Plano (12) - Texas made up seven of the bottom ten cities in the work-life balance category. Men in this state also work some of the longest hours in the country. There are also no state legal protections for working dads - no paid leave, wage replacement, sick leave for child care, or time off for school events.
To see the full list of 200 cities, you can check the chart included here.