Long drive (~1 hr with traffic) to school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not in the DC area, but there isn't a board like this where I live. Tell me about having a long drive to your kid's private school and how it affected their experience.

You won't be in the area and it affects the kid socially. Find something closer or move is my advice. Two hours added onto an already long day is not good.

[Anonymous]

Did this with my youngest for the first 3 years of school until she got her license. She did a lot of homework in the car. We also became really close, and now that she's an adult I still have the closest relationship with her of my 3 kids.

It was a great incentive for her to learn how to drive.

It wore me out on driving, and I don't enjoy it the way I used to. But maybe that's just a function of getting older.

[Anonymous]

Lots of time spent in the car outside of the morning and afternoon commutes. Cuts into participating in events that fall after school. Do you find something to do for the 1-3 hours before event? Do you try and make it home and right back out? Do you ever attend conferences in person (because do you really want to make the It's worn on us so now we're moving in closer because we don't plan on changing schools.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, didn't mean to submit yet ^^^

Lots of time spent in the car outside of the morning and afternoon commutes. Cuts into participating in events that fall after school and wknd parties that are usually within a 15 min radius of school, rec sports with friends, playdates after school, and the list goes on. Do you find something to do for the 1-3 hours before after school event? Do you try and make it home and run right back out? Do you ever attend conferences in person (because do you really want to make the 2 hr drive for a 15-20 min conference when Zoom is an option, but then you miss out on what comes with being in the school)? It's worn on us so now we're moving in closer because we don't plan on changing schools.

[Anonymous]

We know a number of kids who chose the longer commute option because of sports. They will be up before 6am, get driven to where the bus picks them up, and then drive 45 minutes on the bus to school.

To me, it is absolutely insane. The kid stays after school to do homework between school and club sports practice. And often doesn’t get home until 9pm.

If you have an only child, maybe a family could make this work without feeling like they have sacrificed too much. But that s a grinding way to spend the high school years.

[Anonymous]

I did 45 minutes each way as a kid for private school. It only worked because my dad was commuting nearby for work anyway, but it still pretty much sucked. Saving grace was that I had a best friend with a very welcoming family who lived 5 minutes from the school. I spent a lot of high school afternoons hanging out at her house before going back to school for play rehearsals, evening games, etc. But I wouldn't do it to my own kids if I had any other reasonable choice.

[Anonymous]

And to add - yeah, one of the big issues was that it was hard to have friends over to my own house. A few good friends would come for sleepovers, but it definitely made me feel a bit socially isolated. And if you do it, you should definitely expect to be driving your kid that far on weekends as well so that they can see friends.