How's your commute??

[Teenytoona]

My commute used to be at right around 45 minutes (barring extreme weather or traffic tie-ups, but this was also a route with few tie-ups). Mind you, this route was one I finally settled on as being the best after months of going this way, that way, or another. Well my perfect route now has a crucial section of road cut down to one lane until August, which makes the travel go horrifically slow. This means I have to take an alternate route. None of them are that much better. 2 of them would be better if I left much earlier, but there's not a whole lot of point in my doing that. So my 45 mins has been lengthened to at least an hour, because due to traffic and/or length it's going to take forever.

Help me with a little perspective. How is your commute?

[lyterae]

Our commute is right around the hour mark, especially now with all the snow. It's a 70 mile round trip.

[Halfasianmomma]

My morning commute sucks as I take DD from my current residence to her daycare, and then backtrack to downtown to go to work. I leave home at 7h20 and arrive at work at 8h35. It's really tough but DD LOVES that daycare and I can't seem to decide that she needs to be closer to me.

My evening commute is about 45 minutes by subway as my parents pick DD up from daycare for me (thank god for them!).

[busymama77]

Our commute - let's see. It's 30 to 35 mins to DS's preschool and then another 10 to 15 minutes to my work. So right around 45 mins. If I don't pick up DS from preschool and go straight home, I can make it there in 35 to 40 mins, but if I do pick him up, it's an hour total. Leave work at 5:15pm and get home at 6:15pm.

It's not ideal, but it works and I don't mind it. I LOVE where we live, I love DS's school and my work location is practically ideal.

[Alyantavid]

Without kids (so morning commute), it's 5 minutes. Afternoons, when I have to pick up kids, it's probably 20 minutes actual driving, but I have to wait for ds1's bus, which takes forever. I leave work at 3:30 and get home around 4:15ish.

[CatsCradle]

Without DD, my commute is generally 25 minutes by subway.

With DD, which is every day, my commute is...well, let's say...physically challenging:

We leave the apartment at 7:30, take the subway to a different neighborhood, catch the 8:12 bus up the hill, I drop DD off by 8:25, I walk to a different subway line, get to work by 8:55. Reverse coming home.

DD goes to a school that we love and the time and energy to get her there is worth it for me. Besides, I get to spend two extra hours with her per day (during the commute) that I really enjoy. We read, talk, goof off.

[HollyBearsMom]

All and all about 30 minutes and that includes dropping our son off at school (cars lining up, actual drop off, getting back out)

In the AM (unless I get behind a school bus or a really slow driver) I can usually leave the house at 7:30 be sitting at my desk 8:00.

interestingly coming home at night isn't that much faster even though I don't pick our son up because of the evening commuters coming home from the city. That late in the AM they are long gone but at 5:30 the back roads that I take start to fill up.

[Qestia]

In the morning I (ideally) leave the house with DS at 7:50 and get to work by 8:30, normally I leave ten minutes later and get to work ten minutes later. Not sure where all the time goes, it's about a ten minute walk to preschool, then if the subway comes promptly a five minute ride with ten more minutes walking thrown in.

At night I leave at 4:30 and can either walk to preschool (30 min) take the bus (20ish) or subway (varies) and generally get home around 5:30 because it takes DS forever to leave school.

When it was warm and stayed lighter out later I was riding my bike with DS in a bike seat and it was awesome, my total commute with preschool drop-off was 30 min or less.

[Icehockey18]

On days my mom comes to watch ds at our house, it's 45 minutes. But on days I bring him to her (she works from home so I bring him to her 1 day a week) my commute is 2 hours. Usually in the evenings that he is at my parents, they bring ds home to me. Otherwise the evening commute would be closer to 3 hours with traffic! But, I'm also only going in two full days a week, and one day for just a couple of hours, so it's not too bad.

[Geofizz]

We constrained our house search to within 3 miles of my office. Driving takes 15-18 minutes each way (and parking costs > $60/month). Biking takes 14 minutes. Walking to the campus shuttle and taking the shuttle bus takes ~30 minutes.

Needless to say, I don't drive to work.

[Poodge]

In the morning 35-45 minutes - DH drops off DS at daycare.

In the evening 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes - I pick DS up from daycare.

[1jooj]

When I was dealing with school dropoffs and childcare, it took me 45 minutes, even though I live a scant 5mi from the office and my drive is rural-into-metro edge. Now, both kids are in school and ride the school bus, and I have changed my work schedule a lot, so I can drive straight in. Depending on how I hit the lights, it's 15-18 minutes.

[blizzard_babe]

Depends on the day.

When I'm JUST driving myself to work (rare these days), it's 7 minutes, door-to-door, unless I get stuck behind a school bus, in which case it's like 8.

When I'm carpooling with our neighbor (usually M-W-F; DH works evenings on these days and stays home with DS during the day), it's more like 15 because I have to drive past my work, go drop him off, and then back to work.

On the mornings when DH works (T-Th), he drops me off at work (7min), then drives to drop neighbor off (3min), then drops DS off at the babysitter's (another 5min), then goes to work himself (like 3min).

Ah, the joys of three adults sharing one car . BUT, our neighbor is probably (Hopefully! He's super obnoxious) moving away very, very soon. So while we'll lose out on the money he's supposed to give us for gas, we'll have a shorter commute and not have to deal with him.

[StephandOwen]

DS's school, my school and my work are all very close together (planned that way for a reason... with ds's special needs I often get phone calls and need to get to the school quickly).

Our morning routine is 7:20 I'm pulling out of the driveway, 7:35 or 7:40 (depending on traffic) I pull into ds's school. I have to get out and bring him either into the front area (if his aide is waiting for him) or I have to sign in at the office and bring ds upstairs to his classroom to find his para or his sub para or a teacher who will take him. I get out of the school around 7:50-7:53. I get to work (Mon, Wed, Fri) at 8:00. I get to my school (Tues, Thurs) at 8:00. So it's about 40 minutes from the time I leave my house until I'm at work/school, but that includes parking car, getting ds out of car and taking him inside the school, getting back into car, etc.

To go home I get out of work at 2:00 and go to ds's school. He gets out at 2:35, we're home by 2:50. On days I go to school I get out at 1:45 and go to ds's school. Those days I sit in the parking lot and do homework until 2:35.

[ALittleBitCrunchy]

I leave at 8:00, drop the kids off at 8:15, get to work at 9:00. On the way home, without the kid stop (DH does pick up) it's 35 minutes door to door.

[Teenytoona]

Thanks everyone! I always like comparing my situation to others' because it helps my perspective. Then I feel badly if I'm complaining and someone has it crazier. But thank you.

I love hearing about the different types of commutes! I'd love to be able to walk mine someday. I used to years ago.

[roxemama]

I leave for work around 7:10 and I get there at 8:00. DH takes DD to my parents, he works from home. I still have a 50 min commute home. It sucks that they changed the hours but I refused because I want be home by 6pm. It's a long commute and I feel so awkward leaving earlier than everyone else, but I do it.

[Skippy918]

I leave for work around 6:20 and I get there by 7. DH does morning dropoff. I leave at 4, get to daycare about 4:45 and home by 5. I too, feel awkward leaving at 4 when most folks stay till 5 or later, but my boss was cool with these hours.

[1jooj]

I used to feel awkward about making demands for my hours. I used to look around and wonder what coworkers thought, whether they thought I was lazy or cared less than they did. Some of them might, but honestly, at this point I am not sure they did and I absolutely don't care. Here's why: everyone's employer-employee agreement is unique at my office. I work in a nonunion environment. Each individual negotiated his/her own pay, etc. I could be paid a lot more, I could be paid a lot less. Someone else coming in might get more vacation because they negotiated for it. In my current role I negotiated for my hours and telecommute option, and compromised on other things.

In fact, it was in a conversation with my HR director that I finally came to total peace with it--it was he who pointed out that no one knows what anyone else is getting paid (or, for the most part, they shouldn't), or the details of our employment negotiations. And we're paid, and retained, for our contributions. If anyone takes issue with my situation and think they deserve/need/warrant similar, they should head straight to their supervisors and make their demands.

It was really empowering to hear.

[almadianna]

around 30 minutes each way for me. the worst part is really walking from the parking lot to my office that takes a while and its awful in the rain/heat/etc.