[Academic]

I don't have kids yet but hopefully they are in my future. I was just pondering where I grew up, where I live now and what I would want for my children. DH and I both grew up on the Gold Coast and hated it, except for the beaches (and our friends). We now live in inner-city Brisbane and love it. We've also lived in inner-city Sydney and inner-city London, and loved those too. So it's safe to say we're city people. Having said that, we're also both very comfortable in rural environments, quite interested in permaculture etc. For a lot of my friends, their ideal environment to raise kids would be the bush, where they have wide open spaces, get up close with nature, have a relaxed sort of environment etc. I think I'd actually like to raise my kids in the inner city, right where we are now. Our suburb has such a strong community, you can walk everywhere and there's always something to do. I would have loved to have grown up here.

I've decided my ideal would be having a main home in the city, and a holiday home in the bush - on acreage in Northern NSW, perhaps. And when I say holiday home, I mean a rustic cabin, or a yurt (I'm obsessed with yurts). It could be rented out at other times of the year and weekends we weren't using it. Best of both worlds!

(I know - wouldn't we all like a holiday home? I'm not saying it's realistic, just ideal! )

If you were lucky enough to have the choice, what would be the ideal environment for your family? And is the same as the area you grew up in, or vastly different?

[cinnabubble]

I would raise them as inner city as possible. I honestly don't understand why anybody would want to live anywhere else. I grew up in the dire suburbs and they scarred me for life.

[Mozzie1]

Somewhere near the beach, with an inner city feel to it. Unfortunately, that's WAY put of our price range .

[R2B2]

in the country.
not too country though.
a nice medium sized town that has all the good facilities, but is small enough to feel "close knit"
or right where we are they are happy and don't know the difference. we can take holidays to the country to visit family and get a "fresh air" fix

[Domestic Goddess]

Not the same envirnonment. Not even the same country lol. I moved to Europe when I was a preschooler.

Anyway, I HATED living in a small, wet, cold and overcrowded country. We used to have 40 acres in Kurrajong NSW, so I got a major culture shock when moving onto a 450m2 block with a 2 story house.

This is why we moved back in 2003. I will never ever move to a crowded area (like one of the major cities in Australia) again. I now live in the "burbs" up on the North Coast of NSW and its great for kids to live here. Beautiful beaches on 1 side, pristine rainforests on the other. All while still having the conveniences of a big city. Ie: buses, airport, harbour, shopping centers, etc.

[PrincessPeach]

by the beach!

I've made the seachange to the Gold Coast from the suburbs & am loving every minute of it.

[mel43]

I've lived in the mountains my entire life. I can't imagine being happy anywhere else.
My kids have also lived here their entire lives (obviously) and they're pretty happy too.

[Ally'smum]

I would raise them as inner city as possible. I honestly don't understand why anybody would want to live anywhere else. I grew up in the dire suburbs and they scarred me for life.

I hated our suburb and even now when I visit my parents I wonder why anyone would live there, as a teenager I dreamed of living inner city, that's where I moved when I out and no amount of living space or media rooms would get me back to the outer suburbs!

[wish*upon*a*star]

DH and I grew up in a large country town and this is where we plan to raise DD

[Old Grey Mare]

As mine ride horses/motorbikes I would love to have lived in the country when they were younger (now 14 & 18). I grew up in a small country town and loved it. Moving was not really an option as DHs job does not really come up very often in rural areas.
In an ideal world where money was no object I would have liked country acres, a beachouse and a flat bang in the middle of Sydney CBD.