How far of a drive is worth it to attend private school?
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Anonymous
I live in Gaithersburg and took one kid to Bethesda for three years. Now I'm taking two kids for HS into DC for the next two years. They're up by 6 am, hit the shower get dressed, breakfast 99% of time is eaten in car, out the door by 7 am. They both play sports so most nights we don't get home until 7 or so. They have dinner while doing homework which could take them into 12 or 1 am depending. They're never in bed before 12 since they have a minimum of 4 hrs of homework. Every semester we would take a couple mental health days away from school just to sleep etc...I don't recommend it - unless the homework load is light. |
Anonymous
Oh, and I've met kids coming from Frederick and Baltimore, however they didn't play any sports, but still... |
Anonymous
| You should ask the nanny how she would feel driving that everyday. |
Anonymous
| Our morning commute is long, 45 minutes to an hour. It's around 30ish minutes in the afternoon. It is well worth it for our child though. Most kids in our community go to different schools, though most don't commute as far. We are still able to keep the local friendship.bond going at this point. Though I suspect it will get harder with time. No local public, independent or parochial seems to fit our need nearly as well as this school, so we make the sacrifice while we can and it outweighs other options. |
Anonymous
| We do 10 miles daily from Cevy Chase to Potomac . It is very doable but occasionally a hassle for parent events at 7:00 p.m. |
Anonymous
| I would caution against a long commute unless the school is an unusually good fit (in which case its worth it). Without knowing what 10 miles you would be driving its difficult to know how long it would take but my DS went to a school about 30 minutes away. He took a school bus so the daily commute wasn't too bad BUT every time there was a parent teacher conference or some other event we would be on the road longer than we were at the school. This was especially true at rush hour when the 30 minute drive would expand to much longer, it became a disincentive to go to events. Plus all of his friends were far away. We moved him closer and everyone's quality of life improved. |
Anonymous
I share this perspective even though I'm the PP who is traveling 15 miles each way to get to our school. But we only do it because we can do it in 25 minutes. Can't imagine we would subject our child to more than 30, even if we loved the school. That's why I say focus on the driving time, not the mileage distance. It's all very well for adults to suffer through long commutes to work, etc. But even if kids can make use of a long commute time, they're still kids and they need down time, outdoors time, etc. Childhood is too short, in my opinion, to be spending over an hour each day on a bus. |
Anonymous
Us too, but my kids do homework in the car, they are usually in bed by 11. Plus they can preread on the weekends. That is what we do. Also most practices start 45 minutes after school ends, that is another 30 minutes to get homework done. Game nights are brutal but there are about 10 of those a season. |
Anonymous
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OP, we live exactly 10 miles from our private school. Most days, it takes 30 minutes in the morning to get there and 15-20 minutes back home.
We think it's worth it, because the education is a huge quantum level better than our kids could get at our base public school. However, both DH and I work in DC and our offices are about 10 (DH) and 15 (me) minutes away from DCs' schools. DCs don't mind the commute too much. We try to make it fun using books on tape, their favorite music, and catch-up time with mom and dad. It's also a nice down time transition after school. Our school draws kids from a wide radius. There is a clique of kids who live nearby, but DCs have friends in our home neighborhoods, too, and it's kind of nice for them to have separate communities. I also like the fact that our community provides a reality check for our kids. The school they attend is full of extremely wealthy families. We are not. Living where we do means they get to see that extreme wealth is not the norm for everyone. |
Anonymous
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For the love of God, please don't drive to the ends of the earth to send your kids to the "best" privates. I live near three and traffic is a f$&*ing nightmare because of all the parents racing through the city from VA and MD.
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Anonymous
Well, there's your answer, OP. Don't drive a long way to a private school because it might inconvenience those who decided to live near them. I bet you didn't know that if you drove in from a long distance, your car takes up more space than if the slot at these schools is filled by someone closer in. |
Anonymous
| We live 12 miles from school, but it only takes 20 minutes to get there most days. Kids take the bus and it works out well. Friends do live in a variety of directions, but it doesn't bother us much. We do more with friends who are closer, but don't mind driving or facilitating meeting somewhere in the middle. I agree with PP who says look at commuting time over miles. In reality there are not schools closer than 10-15 minutes for us, so for the better fit the extra 10-15 minutes isn't a big deal. |
Anonymous
| We are 15 to 20 minutes away, not too bad. Wouldn't want to go too much further though. |
Anonymous
| We live 12 miles away from our school. It takes 30 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon. As others have noted, it becomes part of the routine - great time to talk with the kids, sometimes they do homework, practice spelling words, etc. It doesn't bother us, but every family is different. |
Anonymous
| DD has a long commute from Baltimore County to Chevy Chase for the current school year but the drive is 45 mins to an hour. Next year, it will be from SE DC to the same location. It's worth it for us, though I have considered renting closer to school. |