Hi Firefly, it's a toughie isn't it? What's best for us, what's best for our kids?

Like Fletch, I love suburbia, I grew up in suburbia (although nowhere near as big as Sydney is, more of a country town than here!), I plan on raising our kids here, but when I retire I'm going to have 6 mths a year up in Coffs Harbour on a couple of acres! We would also love to buy a holiday house in the country somewhere so that some part of each year we are spending there.

I think you can create the environment you want for your kids no matter where you live. Although I don't think I'd cope very well in a unit block!

We have friends who have horses on properties only about 10-15 mins away (not their homes), so plenty of offers on that front. My MIL keeps chooks in her backyard only 20 mins from the city. We have two dogs in our backyard and lots of parks nearby. We go to the beach in summer and do bushwalks in the national parks around here all year round. We also take the dogs for walks just around the block and there is plenty of wildlife in our area. Picnics all year round when the weather is good, plenty of different locations for those. BBQs with friends at our place, theirs or in a park or reserve somewhere. We won't be able to let our kids roam around as freely as we would in the country, but I think we can make up for it with team activities when they're old enough (not too many, I don't want to overschedule my kids!). They'll also have plenty of friends nearby, probably like I did, across the road, so they can visit often.

And I'm sure in the country, even though it might be a slightly longer drive to everything (although, you don't have traffic to contend with, if it makes you feel any better we're probably in our cars for the same amount of time not getting as far!) you can do most, if not all, of the things we do here. Without the hassle of finding parking!! LOL