Hellobee Boards

@Maysprout: I only have a 7.5 month old, but I think living in the 'burbs of Philly is great. The schools are good. We live in an area where we can easily get to the city--and though we haven't taken advantage of all of them yet, there are so many cool kid-friendly places, between the zoo, the Please Touch Museum, the Franklin Institute, the Constitution Center.

I have lived her all my life and I am excited to raise my kids here. Definitely a place with a lot of personality. If you have any questions, wall me! Happy to share my experiences and thoughts as a local!

I didn't have kids when I lived in Philly, but most of my friends who still live there do. The public schools in the city are a mess, so our friends who live in Center City all send their kids to private schools. The urban parks (Rittenhouse, Washington Square, etc) are great places for meeting up with kids, though!

But since you're not keen to live downtown, most of my knowledge of the 'burbs is the Main Line (a dozen or so towns along the rail line west of the city) and the Doylestown area (45 minutes to an hour north of the city). The Main Line is awesome but relatively expensive -- I went to one of the colleges there and lived a couple towns away from my college for a few years after I graduated. Nice houses, good schools (and correspondingly, fairly high property taxes) but you can find some nice apartments, too, if you're looking to rent. I don't remember there being many playgrounds or parks for little ones, but I also wasn't looking for them at the time. Most of the towns have the "old-school suburb" feel, like a smallish town with shops, a library, etc as opposed to a "modern" suburb with housing developments and a strip mall with a Petco and Super Target. If we had stayed in the Philly area, we'd have ended up buying in one of these towns. The commute to Center City isn't too bad and you're not far from most of the fun things Bisous mentioned.

Doylestown is probably a bit far if you or your hubby need to commute downtown -- I did it briefly and it pretty much sucked.

I hope some other Philly bees can chime in. I kind of miss Philly, I was pretty over it by the time we moved but it definitely has it's charms.

Innnnn west Philadelphia born and raised...

I live in South Jersey. It's about a 20-25 minute commute to Center City by car but if you live by the PATCO speedline like I do, he can be downtown in about the same time and not have to find and pay for parking.

There are some really nice parts of South Jersey - Haddonfield and Cherry Hill have the best schools but Collingswood, Haddon Heights, Moorestown, and some other towns are really nice too.

Gonna echo the recommendations for South Jersey and PATCO I used to live in Collingswood (we're in central PA now) and took PATCO to my job in Center City -- super convenient and not far at all. Collingswood is adorable and the schools are fine.

Philly's really not that dangerous especially if you are smart about it and stick to the most well-traveled areas, but if you're not a city person, I think there's plenty to do in the area that doesn't involve going into the city at all.

I would definitely recommend living on/near a rail line so that you can take the train into the city, especially if your husband's job is in Center City.

@danda: @StrawberryBee: I grew up in Montco.
Both DH and I are from Philly suburbs. I have a lot of high school friends who live in the area with kids. We wanted to move back but DH's job has kept us from doing so, but we're hoping to move back eventually as both of our families are there. As previous posts have said, growing up in the philly suburbs has been great and there are a lot of good options for schools but with the excitement of the city at your fingertips...or at the end of an eternally jammed 76 East.

@Tidybee: a fellow montocoer here!

@Tidybee: @maybebaby: @Cupcake: nice! I know @danda: knows about it already, but for those of you still in the area there's a King of Prussia meetup discussion in progress in another thread ^_^.

@Maysprout: maybe you need to do some investigative work and come join us at the very big, very posh mall

Also, Media is a great place to live. Tiny little family town.

@spaniellove: I really loved how walkable everything was -- my parents still live there and walk for so many things. It does seem like it's becoming popular with families who want to move out of the city but still have some city-like aspects. And the Collingswood farmer's market will always be my favorite -- I haven't found anything nearly as good where I am now. It's a great little town and I'm glad you like it too

@kbm1026: I'm right near you in Chester Springs. I worked in Paoli until I had my son (now SAHM). Love Malvern and Paoli area!

Lots of great suburbs as previously mentioned. We're a little further out from the city, but we love this area. West Chester is awesome and Exton and the school districts right in our area are amazing.

@Maysprout: I am from Delaware County, near the border to Montco. There are also lots of places to live with easy access to the regional rail/high speed lines around here, too. Springfield, Havertown, Ardmore, Media are all towns that come to mind. I think Regional Rail from this area is around $8-9 r/t. Not sure about high speed line.

Schools are good in this area, but taxes are high-ish. Though it's more affordable than the Main Line!

I suspect the commute from NJ is shorter (although it's counter-intuitive) because I-76 coming in from the Western suburbs is so backed up and there isn't a good highway to go directly north/south (95 won't take you near Abington/Willow Grove area). For trains (SEPTA for PA suburbs or PATCO for NJ), look at the cost of a monthly pass, not the regular round-trip cost.