We rented near there until about 16 months ago (when our place was ready to move into nearby). I think either would be great. There is loads to do with small children (I have an 18 month old) - lovely playgrounds, parks (e.g. Malahide Castle), etc. etc. We are looking to upgrade, finances permitting, as with two home offices and a toddler, we are bursting out of our 2 bed place at the moment. We are employed in full-time jobs in the city, but these involve a lot of take home work for evenings/weekends, so need work stations and desk space at home too. And we think that Seapark/Seabury would be great to live in. My main concern about the area is the travel time to the city centre. A lot depends on whether you work north or south side of the city. As working south side makes the journey to/from work considerably longer (timewise), esp. during peak hours. We both work south city centre. While living in Malahide (v. close to Seabury), we were still 'footloose and fancy free', so I left for work at 6.45am to be in work for 7.30am - to make use of the taxi lanes on the Malahide Road that one can use before 7am. Even though we only officially start at 9am, the offices are open from 7.30am. Getting to work early really worked for me in that I would much rather spend 45 mins that 1hr 15 mins that it might take during peak times. It became trickier when my son was born. By that time we had moved to Baldoyle, even so, on a typical work day we leave home at 7.10am (if I was leaving from Malahide, we would have to leave home at around 7am at this time of the morning, as traffic is still moving but would need longer if later in the morning), drop him to creche for 7.15am, and will make it to work by approx. 8.15am. If we leave it any later, then I am lucky to make it in for 9am. The DART is definitely an option, but the Malahide station car park is full by around 7.30am and Seabury is too far to walk comfortably to the DART on a daily basis (although I did try!). Baldoyle is that bit easier with the DART access, but I take the car, because some days I really cannot get away with arriving at work later than 9am, and if I take the DART, my typical day involves leaving home at 7.10am, dropping my son to creche for 7.15am, driving to the DART station to catch the 7.45am train. By the time I have walked from Pearse Station to work, it is going on 8.45am, which it cutting things too fine for me to be prepared and be in meetings, etc. by 9am. And if I miss the 7.45am train and have to catch the next one, then it is doubtful I would make work by 9am. But, it does work well for friends of mine who work next to DART stations in the city centre and do not have the extra walk once arriving in town. Even where we live now, we are already starting to look at one of us cutting back on work to at least part-time. We do the same kind of job in the city centre and - even though we have an element of flexibility some days to leave work early and bring work home with us - we still know that working full-time and accommodating school runs is not an option. There are before and after-school day care centres in the area, but I really don't want my child to have the extra stress of having to leave home at around 7am in the mornings so that I can be at work and he can be at school by 9am. So, busy trying to build up something in an alternative, yet related, career direction at the moment, because we would not be able to sustain city centre jobs and normal family life.
