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Question for Working Moms
I currently drive one hour each way to and from work each day. With the rise in gas costs I looked for jobs closer to home, but the salary cut would not be balanced out by savings in gas. So the price of gas is a non-issue right now. I also love this job.
My question for the moms is: Are there any problems you forsee with me having a long commute once we have kids? Is it worth getting a job I may not like as much (and probably won't get paid as much) just to be closer to home in case of emergencies?
Re: Question for Working Moms
I work 10 miles from my house but it can take me from 20 to 60 minutes to get home depending on traffic. So, if your 1 hour drive is pretty constant, then I would until I found something that made me equally happy. Its not as easy to bounce back from a pay cut in this economy.
Does your company have a policy that will provide flexibility like 1 day work from home, a 4 day work week, earlier hours like from 8-4, etc?
Also, you can always review the situation once you do have kids and then there are factors like day care.
The issue I see isn't with emergencies. The issue is the little kids tend to go to bed early.
If you lurk on the boards you'll see that a lot of little kids go to bed around 7. With a long commute you'd be giving up a lot of time with your kids. Some people are more bothered by that than others. DH has been talking about moving and increasing is commute from 30 to an hour, but I feel like it would really cut into his parenting time and place a heavier burden on me (since I'd be the one alone with 2 kids for an extra hour each day).
now if you plan to go the nanny route and were able to tweak your child's schedule so they sleep late (like my daughter) than it wouldn't matter as much.
At the most it takes DH 20 minutes to get to work and he is more easily able to get out of work mid-day if an emergency arises (like a call from the nurse's office).
The way we see it now, DH would drop the kids off at a sitter/daycare/our parents house by 8:30 and I would pick them up at 4:30, so I don't think that is any longer than a typical child would be in daycare.
This is only reason I would look for a new job, for a teacher I have a pretty good salary, I work in an amazing school district, and I love my job. I am thinking the trade off to be closer to home might not be worth it.
Getting home at 4:30 is very good. Most commuters get home around 6:30 or 7, so timewise you're no worse off than a non-commuter and summers off is awesome and great time to spend with the kids. I'm actually jealous of your schedule.
You love your job, too, so the only real worry is the actual distance. It sounds like your DH would be the emergency contact. Do you have family in town as backups?
I don't think I'd switch jobs if I were you unless I found something that sounded as great as what I already had.