Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC was so tired at the end of the day that his rec/travel sports suffered which bummed him out.

When does he do his homework? And how much does he get?

I'm not the PP but my son went to the library at 3:00 - 4:00 every day because he knew we would be home late.

4:00-4:30 he would hang out with friends

4:30 I picked him up and went straight to sports (if he had them).

5-6 practice

6:30 home for the night.

7pm dinner

8-9 homework.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids commute was 35 minutes and was actually fabulous. We spent the morning talking listen to music and sometimes quizzing them for tests. I really enjoyed it because I find that as soon as they get home they go to their own corners and do their own thing but we got this time every morning and every evening to connect.

I agree that having consistent time with kids like that is great. Of course, you can have that without the drive as well. We've done both kinds of commutes and, of course, the short one makes life much easier and gives kids more down time. But you adapt to what you need to do and it works out.

I agree you can but I have talked to a lot of people about this and the kids seem to open up in a car, or have conversations "in front of you" with friends that you would normally not hear.

I actually was sad when my son could drive and I missed this time together.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I commuted 45 minutes as a child and by middle school i hated it. i spent my life in the car. when i had my own kids that was one thing i felt very strongly about in terms of parenting decisions. i would never do that to my kids.

also you are being very optimistic with your time estimates. 25 miles (!!) away from any of the big3 schools could take an hour each way easily. 1.5 hours on some days. there's no way you can count on making it in 35 minutes. you'll be commuting in the very heart of rush hour each morning.

Our friends just moved from our neighborhood about 30 minutes away to be closed to their 7th grader's school because she hated being far away from her friends. They said they'll live there until she graduates and then they'll come back here. As someone who went to private school a few minutes away from my house growing up, I didn't appreciate how awesome it was.

We know a family who rented out their house in a farther out neighborhood and rented a new house near the children's schools. They don't want to let go of their house, so they will move back when everyone graduates. Kids are in three different privates at the moment (one K-8, one boys-only upper school and one girls-only upper school) so I get it. That would drive me nuts though. We are currently applying for pre-K (not DC) and I am very grateful that all of our options are within 10 minutes of our house.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We took an apartment near school so they can walk. Go to our house on weekends.

I’m confused. Is your whole family in the apartment all week?!

I call BS/Troll...

i know a few families at our private school who live in DC apartments during the week and their far-flung VA houses on weekends.

I know several at our private who do the same thing too.

We have a rowhouse in NW and thinking of using it while kids are in high school, but we live very close-in VA so it wouldn’t really save much time.

Anonymous wrote:I commuted 45 minutes as a child and by middle school i hated it. i spent my life in the car. when i had my own kids that was one thing i felt very strongly about in terms of parenting decisions. i would never do that to my kids.

also you are being very optimistic with your time estimates. 25 miles (!!) away from any of the big3 schools could take an hour each way easily. 1.5 hours on some days. there's no way you can count on making it in 35 minutes. you'll be commuting in the very heart of rush hour each morning.

Our friends just moved from our neighborhood about 30 minutes away to be closed to their 7th grader's school because she hated being far away from her friends. They said they'll live there until she graduates and then they'll come back here. As someone who went to private school a few minutes away from my house growing up, I didn't appreciate how awesome it was.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We took an apartment near school so they can walk. Go to our house on weekends.

I’m confused. Is your whole family in the apartment all week?!

I call BS/Troll...

i know a few families at our private school who live in DC apartments during the week and their far-flung VA houses on weekends.

I know several at our private who do the same thing too.

+1, especially people with farms in horse country and things like that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We took an apartment near school so they can walk. Go to our house on weekends.

I’m confused. Is your whole family in the apartment all week?!

I call BS/Troll...

i know a few families at our private school who live in DC apartments during the week and their far-flung VA houses on weekends.

I know several at our private who do the same thing too.

We've been doing 35-45 minute commutes every morning for our kids from pre-k on for the past 10 years. 20 minutes w/o traffic. It works for us. You'll have to drive in for playdates, sports, extracurriculars, etc, but our kids wouldn't trade their schools for anything.

We commute 30 minutes each way. That's 1 hour in the car for me in the morning, and 1 hour in the car in the afternoon for pick up. That doesn't count extra meetings, school events, school activities, etc.

There are days I am in the car driving my kids to and from school and attending events where it adds up to 4 hours in the car. Sometimes its okay. Other times, I question why I ever did this to our family. It's seriously no fun to spend a lot of time in the car.

If you or DH have a flexible schedule, a longer commute might work. It can be challenging otherwise. It does take its toll.

Anonymous wrote:My DC was so tired at the end of the day that his rec/travel sports suffered which bummed him out.

When does he do his homework? And how much does he get?

we've been doing it for a couple of years. It can be draining at times, but it's our new normal. I agree with PPs that playdates and weekend birthday parties can be a hassle, but we make it work. It helps to get friendly with close in parents who don't mind hosting all of the playdates.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We took an apartment near school so they can walk. Go to our house on weekends.

I’m confused. Is your whole family in the apartment all week?!

I call BS/Troll...

i know a few families at our private school who live in DC apartments during the week and their far-flung VA houses on weekends.

My DC was so tired at the end of the day that his rec/travel sports suffered which bummed him out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We took an apartment near school so they can walk. Go to our house on weekends.

I’m confused. Is your whole family in the apartment all week?!

I call BS/Troll...