Commuting to daycare

[Anonymous]

Thank you to the recent posters who provided perspectives on commuting to daycare with kids! Helpful tips. I thought about baby carrier/umbrella stroller to help with escalators, but I want to plan for worst case (double stroller).

Not sure what we'll do, leaning toward dealing with the commute given other benefits.


Also, i'm super impressed with the PP who nurses on metro. I was never shy about nursing my first one, but doing it on metro during rush hour is impressive!

[Anonymous]

FYI, on Metro buses most drivers will require you to fold up the stroller and carry it on board. For that reason, I couldn't take the Metro bus (commuted with my DC in a stroller on Metro for 2 yrs) until my DC outgrew the stroller. That was tough in it's own right, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Does anyone here have experience with this type of commute and can offer advice on if it was better or worae than anticipated? We are looking at neighborhood options which are better logistically but have other itable. tradeoffs. While I could see how a nanny would be a good option for many people, we do not feel it is good for our family and would prefer to commute with kids over hire a nanny.

You just need to try the commute out one day and see if you find it personally manageable. It doesn’t sound that bad, you’ll just become keenly aware of where the elevators are at (and test if your double stroller is going to be too cumbersome during rush hour).

[Anonymous]

My neighbor does this and I think it’s nuts, but works for them. Here is how it works.
Kids are 4 and 1. Walk 15 min to Metro in suburban VA. Single very slim stroller with standing board for 4yr old. Ride metro to Rosslyn. Exit Metro, walk 1-2 blocks to daycare. Leave stroller at daycare in their closet. Walk back to Metro, continue downtown to work. Other parent does the whole thing in reverse on the evening.

When my kids were 6mo and 3, we did a similar thing. We had daycare in Rosslyn - between home and work. Parent 1 drove kids to daycare and left a car there. It was cheaper for us to get a monthly spot at daycare and our downtown offices were 3 metro stops apart. Parent 1 continues to work on Metro. Parent 2 takes bus+metro to work.
In the evening, Parent 2 metros to kids and takes car home. Parent 1 takes metro + bus or Uber.

[Anonymous]

Unless you reverse commute, I would really try to avoid this if possible. Rush hour metro with a stroller is just really hard. We live a 25 minute walk to daycare so usually do that, but will take the metro in extreme temperatures. I tried taking it one evening during rush hour after there had been an earlier delay and I had to wait for literally 8 trains to go by before I could even try to fit on one with my (single) stroller. So stressful.

[Anonymous]

An additional consideration is what you will do when your older child is 3-4 and no longer rides in the double stroller. It was very manageable for us to do a walking commute with a double stroller when they were both little and contained. It's a whole new ballgame when you are trying to push a stroller and also make sure your 3.5 year old is walking safely and keeping a somewhat reasonable pace.

[Anonymous]

What is the age of your oldest child? If he or she is closing in on kindergarten, you might weigh that in your decision making. Two dropoffs/pickups in two very different locations can be challenging.

[Anonymous]

We only have one baby but commute to daycare on metro daily and I strongly prefer it to our other options. If you can go slightly off peak (i.e. we leave around 8:30 and go home around 6:15), it really is not terrible (depending which line you take - we are yellow or blue line from VA to DC). Some people are horrible about moving to let you sit near the stroller but most of the time people will make space. Our son loves to interact with others and I think most people enjoy interacting back with him, and as others have said, it's nice to have family time together instead of having a kid in the backseat of a car for 30+ minutes if we drove. Also, having the baby near the office means my husband can sometimes drop in at lunch time/if he has a meeting out of office/etc. and we feel like we're not paying for our kids to be in care while we commute.

As PPs have indicated - the major issue is metro elevators are not totally reliable - we experience at least one broken elevator a week. I would think about and plan for having to carry one kid, hold the stroller, and having your older kid somehow stand and hold on to you. About 30% of the time when I have to do the escalator, someone who seems normal offers to help and I let them deal with balancing the stroller while I hold my son, but that means 70% of the time I'm doing both.