Parents with kids at schools (relatively) far from home: tell me about your kid's social life

[Anonymous]

If I were picking for kindergarten, all things being equal or close enough, I'd pick the closest schools.

Yes, you can totally make it work and plenty of people do, but it will be better for driving, for you volunteering (briefly without missing whole day of school) and for your kid's friends if you live close.

I have two high school kids - one in private and one in public. And there is so much more ease with the public school kid because of the convenience of the school and his friends. You really cannot compare. We are very happy with the private school for the other one, but it's not as easy.

[Anonymous]

We are currently at a school that's 25-30 minutes away. In our new neighborhood no one in our group of about 24 families goes to public school, but all but one goes to a different private, which is about 5-10 minutes away. We are planning to move to that school next year (assuming of course that they get in). The commuting has been hard because the kids have to wake up earlier than they would if we were close and it's just kind of a bear to get to the school for activities, which are only going to become more frequent and important as they get older. I went to a private that was less than 5 minutes from my house growing up and I loved it. I only had two friends in my neighborhood that went there, but the proximity was great. Right now, no one at my kids' school lives near us. People happily come out our way for play dates but every birthday party we attend is at least 30 minutes away, if not farther.