As others have mentioned, I’m curious why you need to be 30mins outside of Boston if you will rarely go there? You can find some really nice places further west along I-91 that are much less expensive, and none of the major traffic and congestion of metro-Boston.

Baystate Medical Center in Springfield is an amazing hospital with a specialized Children’s Hospital and Children’s ER. Bradley Airport between Springfield and Hartford can get you anywhere you need to fly with reasonably priced flights and less busy. And while you might not be in the center of Boston, it’s the midpoint to everywhere, 90 mins to Boston, Albany, and New Haven, and 2.5hrs to NYC. Also much closer to the natural beauty of Vermont, The Berkshires, and Adirondacks.

Springfield and Holyoke don’t have the best school systems, but Wilbraham, Longmeadow, Northampton, Easthampton all do (and really most of the smaller cities/towns).

Boston is great, I usually am in the city every other month or so. It almost always takes me 90mins while my friends on the north and south shore can often take 45-60mins to go 15miles.