Anyone ever try that kind of commute with such a young child?
I can comment on this part, as we've been doing a version of this with DS-now-9 since he was 4. In our case school is about 6 miles away as the crow flies - but we don't have a car, so typically one way is DH and DS going by bike, and the other way is me and DS going by bus. By the time you've followed the bus route/the cyclepath, each of these is between an hour and 75 mins home-school in practice. Some observations:
- in steady state, when things are normal, this is actually not a problem
- but when one parent is away and the other is doing 4 hours travel each day as well as working full time, things get painful! Even if I didn't work, I don't think I could do it alone, certainly not if I had to drive.
- regular one-to-one time with each parent is a real benefit
- we have it a bit easier than you might, because when it's really necessary we can get a taxi instead and then school is only about 20 mins away (but this is too expensive to do more than occasionally)
- DS's extracurriculars happen at school, which makes life easier; and he plays two instruments, which makes life harder. I don't really feel he doesn't have time for extracurriculars. Depends how much you think is enough and how the details work for where you have to be when, though.
- another factor is what kind of homework your child has. DS's school has a no-written-homework policy, so all work he has to do outside school can perfectly well be done on the bus.
- if you have, or could have, a computer or tablet with mobile broadband, the options for occupying the time are a lot broader than audiobooks.
Can't really help with all the other factors in this decision, though... good luck.
