Too long of a commute?

gui's gal

Hi. I am going back to work in mid September and LO will be 5 1/2 months.

My commute is from NJ to NYC by bus or train, and it takes 1 1/2 hours each way. My boss is very understanding, and she says I can work from home one day a week.  

Please give me your honest opinions...Do you think it's poor judgment for me to leave my LO in daycare from 7:30am to 6pm each day and be 20 miles / 1 1/2 hours away from him? We don't have any family that lives really close to help out in case of an emergency, but we do have close friends who are willing to help out.

 TIA!

autumn423

i answered via PM

lindy27

Is your DH or SO closer encase of an emergency?

 My daycare requires you to pick your LO up within an hour if they are sick or hurt so I wouldn't be able to do that if DH was that far away also.

lasfresasrojas

This all depends on you more I guess.

I personally wouldn't do it. I tried going back to work and only lasted a month. I worked an hour away, but DH was only 10 minutes away in case DD needed something.

I just didn't like knowing that someone else was raising my child, even though I would pick her up by 3:00 each day. Now that she is going to bed earlier (by about 8:00) it would give me almost no time with her at all if I were you.

That said, I totally understand that it isn't feasible or desirable for some people. It seems too long of a time and too far away for me, but I also was given the luxury to resign and stay home full time when working didn't work out. 

gui's gal

Thanks for all your advice and thoughts! It is such a tough decision! I wish there were some middle ground. 

Dookie3211

I have a similar commute so I don't think it's unusual or bad that he's at day care that long. But my LO's day care is at my husband's work so if anything happened he is right down the street. We also don't have any family nearby so we had to have a situation where one of us was close by. I would say at least one person should probably be within a 1/2 hour or so- at least at my day care, if your kid is sick they make you come and get them within an hour. You might want to check and see what your day care policies are.