How far do you drive for kid classes?

[mommyoffive]

How far do you drive for kid classes? Or sports, or lessons, whatever

 

 

Either in miles or time?

 

 

I am thinking of going places other than our city and wondering if it is a bit nuts. 

[SamanthaCarter]

I've driven up to 40 minutes and I quit after one semester. Too much for just one kid's benefit and the others having to wait. 

Edited July 19, 2016 by SamanthaCarter

[teachermom2834]

I did a decade of driving 30-45 minutes for all our kids activities so most days. We have recently moved and now I drive about ten minutes. There is a bigger city nearby that would be about 30 minutes. There are some classes of interest there but so far I am unwilling to even consider it. Looking back all that driving was crazy and really impacted quality of life. I would only do it again for a very special opportunity and I would look ahead to how activity could snowball into more days per week as many things tend to do.

[MEmama]

For classes I've done an hour, but that's been unusual. For sports, we drive all over New England. :)

[Annie G]

When our kids did theater we drove 45 minutes each way three or four times a week, and during tech week (which was really ten days) we drove that distance every single day.   It was brutal but we only had the two kids at home and dh and I volunteered for the organization so it was a family thing.  I would have never done it if it hadn't been a whole family thing because it was upwards of 20 hours a week including travel time. 

 

We're glad we did it but we're also glad it's over. 

[Arctic Bunny]

25 miles each way all week this week for swimming lessons, and then again in August. Nothing is closer than 10 miles (school, store, kids' friends). Considering driving 60 miles each way for a once-a-week activity in the fall. I know my friend who lives 35 miles over terrible roads and washouts from any sized town wouldn't hesitate, but I'm still thinking!

[Allearia]

When my kids were younger and we were first homeschooling, I would drive quite a ways. They had fun, but I learned that most of these things were not worth driving to. They didn't really make friends in these classes, and it took too much time away from other school we should be doing, or going to park days or hanging out with friends who are closer. The classes were more enrichment content and it just was not a good use of our time,

 

So it really depends. Obviously, if you are in an area where you have to drive farther for classes or to make friends anyway that makes a big difference. Right now the farthest we go is 25 minutes for a maker club one evening a week. They have been doing that a couple of years and have made really close friends there. We sometimes drive a bit longer for a weekly park day. We do mostly online classes.

[MinivanMom]

I'm not willing to drive more than 20-30 min for regular classes or sports. We live in the affluent suburb of a large urban area, so it just isn't really necessary. If we were rural, then I might feel differently.

 

We have driven 45 min for music lessons in an uncommon instrument. We are now looking at driving almost an hour for a more serious conservatory-level teacher in that same instrument. 

[SparklyUnicorn]

20 minutes tops

 

I refuse to do more than that for anything ongoing. 

[Janeway]

Sadly, too far. I live in a small town a bit from a city. I drive to the city all the time for everything. I drive 45 minutes, each way, three times a week, for ballet. Ugh!

[Lady Florida.]

I did a decade of driving 30-45 minutes for all our kids activities so most days.

 

I did the same, but I only have one so I don't know if that made a difference. The choices were drive 45 minutes several times a week or send him to school. There was no secular homeschool group in my city (still isn't) and we absolutely did not fit in with the statement-of-faith group that was active here. 

 

The end result is that ds has no friends in our city. He made good friends in that group that met 30-45 minutes away and now 10 years later he has to drive that distance in order to hang out with his friends. 

[Lady Florida.]

I did a decade of driving 30-45 minutes for all our kids activities so most days.

 

I did the same, but I only have one so I don't know if that made a difference. I got used to it and after a while it didn't bother me. The choices were drive 45 minutes several times a week or send him to school. There was no secular homeschool group in my city (still isn't) and we absolutely did not fit in with the statement-of-faith group that was active here. 

 

The end result is that ds has no friends in our city. He made good friends in that group that met 30-45 minutes away and now 10 years later he has to drive that distance in order to hang out with his friends. 

 

ETA: The only time it annoyed me was when something was occasionally scheduled in my area of the county and people complained about having to drive so far. These same people knew I drove that distance in the opposite direction on a regular basis but couldn't drive up here every once in a while. 

Edited July 19, 2016 by Lady Florida.

[Farrar]

I'll go 30+ minutes away. As long as it's not every day, I'm okay with it.

 

The vast majority of the kids' activities take place up the road - 12 minutes no traffic, about twice that with traffic and they have to allow about 45 minutes to take the express bus alone if they're going to do that.

[LisaKinVA]

it's a 30 minute drive to either base, but I have to plan 45 minutes to allow for the gate/parking/walking.  We do this trip almost daily to one base or the other for swim practice.  (Back home, I lived 10 miles from our pool, and it was still a 30-45 minute drive -- we're 20km from the bases here).

 

Would I like it to be closer?  Yup.  But, the family is better off (health-wise) where we are.  I keep the activities on a certain schedule, though -- so we aren't going back and forth constantly, and we have a solid, un-broken time for school.

[LucyStoner]

30-45 minutes isn't unheard of but most stuff they do is a bit less. Traffic can make something that is close by and make it seem much farther away.

 

Right now one son has day-camp for kids on the spectrum. That's 30 minutes away in the morning and 45 in the afternoon. I wouldn't do that everyday all year but for a 5 week camp with therapeutic benefits I can do it. Especially since the large price tag is being picked up by our insurance.

Edited July 19, 2016 by LucyStoner

[Carrie12345]

I live semi-rural, so driving is part of the package.

 

Our weekly co-op is just over an hour away.  Meets at the main library branch are about 40 minutes away.  Karate is between 30 and 40 minutes.  The environmental center is 30 minutes.  We have a few other things that are closer to 20 minutes.

 

For reference, the nearest post office (which isn't even mine) is 7 miles away, and the grocery store is 9.5 miles away.

 

ETA: Softball and baseball can be anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes away, depending on who they're playing.  That gets REALLY crazy when we have double or triple bookings.

Edited July 19, 2016 by Carrie12345

[zoobie]

Traffic here sucks. Time for regular practices and camps can be up to an hour and it isn't even that far. For baseball tournaments, so far the farthest away was about 90 minutes.

[madteaparty]

I think I maxed out at 1hr 20 min one way. I'm moving ;)

[Tap]

DS swam on a competitive club team that was 40 minutes away.  We were on a local team, but left to follow a coach.  I had another family to carpool with, so we each drove one way.  Practice was 3 hours, so it was also nice to not have to sit and wait each day. 

[regentrude]

I might win. 

100 miles (a bit less than 2 hours) one way for judo. 

Edited July 19, 2016 by regentrude

[teachermom2834]

I did the same, but I only have one so I don't know if that made a difference. The choices were drive 45 minutes several times a week or send him to school. There was no secular homeschool group in my city (still isn't) and we absolutely did not fit in with the statement-of-faith group that was active here.

 

The end result is that ds has no friends in our city. He made good friends in that group that met 30-45 minutes away and now 10 years later he has to drive that distance in order to hang out with his friends.

This is a real issue and one reason I have refused to drive far in our new home. It is difficult to build community when you drive that far. Difficult to get together with friends other times. Difficult to get help with transportation. It is hard when all your friends are that far away. Sometimes you just need a ride to the shop to pick up your car or someone to keep a kid for 15 minutes or someone to give your kid a ride home, etc. we lacked that type of community when we were driving and it requires serious planning to get together with friends. If you are not doing the classes for social reasons or you already have strong local community that is not such an issue. But I have 4 kids so might be easier with fewer.

[luuknam]

Depends on the classes. We did a field trip group this past year, and part of that was a monthly 4-H meeting about 40 min away. I'm considering letting my oldest do archery through 4-H this fall, and that would be the same distance. I don't anticipate archery being a multi-year activity though, and while it's once a week, it's not 50 weeks per year. If it turns out he *really* likes archery I'd find something closer (which would cost more, but then there'd be less gas money, though it would probably still be more expensive overall closer).

 

But, for taekwondo at least 2x/week for each kid (so I'm there 3-5 days a week, 50 weeks per year), definitely no further than the 7 or so minutes it takes to drive there.

 

Living in Texoma made me rather used to driving a lot. I drove 1.5 hours to university twice a week for a year (and once a week another year or so), and they bused my oldest 23 miles to school his first year (at 3yo) and 32 miles to school his second year (at 4yo), and we'd drive 15 miles to town to do groceries, and my wife drove an hour to work in Oklahoma, so yeah, driving is just not that big a deal to me, nor to the kids. Oh, and I was a truck driver for a while, and have even driven 10.5 hours without stopping once...

[SparklyUnicorn]

This is a real issue and one reason I have refused to drive far in our new home. It is difficult to build community when you drive that far. Difficult to get together with friends other times. Difficult to get help with transportation. It is hard when all your friends are that far away. Sometimes you just need a ride to the shop to pick up your car or someone to keep a kid for 15 minutes or someone to give your kid a ride home, etc. we lacked that type of community when we were driving and it requires serious planning to get together with friends. If you are not doing the classes for social reasons or you already have strong local community that is not such an issue. But I have 4 kids so might be easier with fewer.

 

This is exactly the problem.  I have two, but it's still difficult.  If they take a far away class and want to get together with kids from the class then everyone is far away. That's just too much for me to manage.  This is especially challenging in winter when the weather doesn't cooperate. 

 

There really is no reason for me to travel far.  I live in a city near a larger city and other cities.  There is stuff to do nearby. 

[luuknam]

I might win. 

100 miles (a bit less than 2 hours) one way for judo. 

 

I think who drives the furthest is losing, not winning. ;)

 

Oh, and I forgot to mention in my previous post that I'm also thinking of homeschool choir/guitar/theater for both kids about 30 minutes away (in the opposite direction from 4-H, of course).

[redsquirrel]

It really depends on the area.  I know some people who live in an area where they drive quite a long way for what feels like everything. Or they have a kid (or an adult) who needs a specialized training and it is worth the travel.

 

And if you live in a suburban area it is often common to drive into the nearby city for something good/necessary. To me it seems like a lot to drive 45 or more mins to something, but for a friend who lives outside Philly it's NBD. She drives that much one way just to get to work, kwim?

 

 

[J&JMom]

I drive this distance for my kids activities:

  10 minutes for Scout meeting (1x a week)

  3 minutes for piano lessons (teacher lives about a mile from our house)

  10 minutes for groups (oldest table top meeting @ library, and youngest youth group at a church).

  5 minute walk to our neighborhood park and pool

 10 minute drive to rec center and pool

When we did Karate it was a mile from my house.

 

I hate to drive anywhere - lol.  We quit going to church because we had a huge disagreement with our local Parish (15 minutes) and the next nearest one  was over 30 minutes away.  Travel time was longer than mass, so we quit. To be fair, I am the only Catholic in the family.  I love Amazon and other internet ordering sites so I rarely even have to go to a store. I group my errands so I only have to go out once.  I'm weird, but luckily my kids don't have to suffer for it since everything is close.  Now I do drive for field trips, camps, and other activities, but for daily grind stuff I prefer not to go. 

[Arcadia]

Our kids furthest class is 15miles away on a saturday morning so it takes less than 20mins via freeway. Their weekday classes are nearer but the morning peak hour traffic means that the drive time becomes 40mins or more.

[Jan in SC]

On a daily basis- 15-45 minutes (with traffic)

Weekly- 2 hours each way

Monthly - quarterly- (depending on what is needed) - 12 hour drive each way, or will fly instead

[Guest]

Our farthest has been 45 minute for piano and co op. We dropped co op to be less busy but we keep the piano teacher because she is amazing.

[Rebel Yell]

Depends on the activity. Further than 30 minutes feels like to much for me, especially for an activity that meets more than twice/week. About an hour is my limit for a weekly class, 1.5 hrs for a special event or field trip.

 

The drive is more bearable if I can fit in grocery shopping during the wait time, then I can eliminate that trip at another time.

 

For SweetChild to drive herself, 30mins is my limit, a little further if she is driving a friend.

 

Church, I have a 10-minute limit. Especially when we had Sunday morning service, worship team practice, and kids club, middle school, and high school youth groups all on different days. 🙄

 

I also would consider slightly-less but still-good quality for classes that were 5 minutes away over 45 minutes away.

 

Also, SweetChild's song/dance ensemble does 20 Holiday and 25+ Summer shows, and the drive time ranges from 5mins to 60mins, with most right at 30mins w no traffic. No choice there, but at least the rehearsal studio is only 10mins away, with weekly rehearsals.

Edited July 19, 2016 by Rebel Yell

[SparklyUnicorn]

I might win. 

100 miles (a bit less than 2 hours) one way for judo. 

 

Holy cow.  Once in awhile or regularly?

[Dmmetler]

I have driven 2 1/2 hours so DD could do field/lab herpetology on a fairly regular basis, although we do try to space it out and do as much at home/locally as possible, so she might have 10 ponds she's monitoring and taking water samples and doing frog counts on weekly, but only go to the lab and do more detailed tests once a month.

 

For regular stuff, 30 minutes is pretty common, especially as DD gets older. For example, we switched tumbling programs from one 10 minutes away to one 30 minutes away because DD needed more focused instruction, and wasn't getting it. So we moved to a gym which offered extra classes for their team kids, but also let other kids at that level take as well, meaning she's getting the same coaching as the team and there's no "it's rec, so it's just for fun" going on. The difference in only a couple of months is enough to make the drive worth it.

[bettyandbob]

I've been in this house 19 years and the kids are 21,18, and 14. Almost everything was within 5 miles and/or 20 minutes.

 

Each of the older two had an activity (different activities) that was slightly out of that range for two years each. The youngest did therapeutic riding which was 1.25 hours to get to and 30-45 minutes to get home. It was an 8 week session. It was expensive and ds never got beyond brushing and walking the horse. So I didn't sign up again. I'd heard miracles from others about riding--not us.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

 

 

 

Living rurally we drove quite a bit fur everything.

 

We've moved and are closer to most things.

[Shellydon]

20-25 minutes one way.  I have friends that drive an hour one way regularly

[SKL]

Currently about a half hour is the max.  I may have driven farther in the past, but I have blocked it out of my memory.  :P

 

I do my best to keep things as close to home as possible.  The rec center and our closest library are less than 10 minutes away, so those are my first choice.  :)  We still have activities a couple/few days a week that are 20-30 minutes away.

[regentrude]

Holy cow.  Once in awhile or regularly?

 

Once or twice a week. He got his license at 16, but we required more supervised driving before we let him do this drive on his own; it has only been a few months since he has been cleared by dad to go on his own. Sooo much time back to our lives!

 

People I know who are serious about music lessons drive the 100 miles to the city for that weekly.

Edited July 19, 2016 by regentrude

[mommyoffive]

So far other than coop which is about 20 ish minutes away, everything has been in town.  So 5 mins maybe 10 if I get stuck behind a tractor.

 

I am thinking of going to either the next town which is 20 mins or the one of the 2 big towns which are 1 hour.  But it would be for all the kids, not one.

[Annie G]

Nope. We drove 3 hours one way for cello. Can't swing it this year as dd doesn't have a half day off from college classes. The other option was 4.5 hours the other direction. The shorter way was two passes, but easier ones. The further professor means going over Monarch Pass (11,000+ feet) and then Kenosha and Red Hill. And Denver traffic. 

 

Kudos to you. That's dedication!

[Julie Smith]

For the past two+ years we have only done activities we can walk to. In September they might be starting gymnastics and that would be a bike ride, or a 10 minute drive. 

[Upward Journey]

Currently, everything they attend is a 15 minute walk or drive.

 

I think the furthest I've ever had to go on a consistent basis was 30 minutes twice a day i.e 2 hours a day all together  :thumbdown: , during the summer, because the kids' swim team had to use a different pool. That was a bit of a pain.

[Rachel]

20-30 minutes for a weekly activity that is at least an hour. I might be willing to have a longer drive if it's a drop off activity that's a little longer if I can run errands at the same time. Anything more than twice a week needs to be closer, I don't like spending all my time in a car.

[AmandaVT]

45 min each way. I've got everything into one day though, so it's one day of driving. 

 

Everything else is within 20 minutes thankfully!

[catz]

One of my kids is doing a theater production 18 miles from home this fall and I'm dreading it.  It may take closer to 40 minutes to drive there at the tail end of rush hour (23 minutes no traffic).   That is the furthest we've driven for a committed activity and to be fair, it will be 5+ days a week for like 10 weeks and the show performs 48 times so it's not like a once a week thing.  Hoping some car pooling might pan out.

 

Typically we rarely drive more than 10 miles which can usually be covered in 20 minutes but depends on traffic.

 

I think it depends where you live.  I live 1.5 miles from DD's dance studio.  People drive 30+ miles for the same studio many days a week without blinking an eye and work closer to the city too.  I know people carting their kids 30-60 minutes one way across town for a school.  I know people driving 90+ minutes to our music school - we live 5 miles from it.  Depends how you chose to live your life. 

 

ETA - to be clear, this is a big part of the reason we live where we are.  If we lived further out, we would not be making the long drives. 

Edited July 19, 2016 by WoolySocks

[Carrie12345]

One of my kids is doing a theater production 18 miles from home this fall and I'm dreading it.  It may take closer to 40 minutes to drive there at the tail end of rush hour (23 minutes no traffic).  

 

This is why it cracks me up when my mother tries to tease me about how far away I live from everything.  Sure, I may be 20-something miles or so from Target, but I get there just as quickly (or slowly) as she does to the one barely 2 miles from her house.  :lol:

[catz]

This is why it cracks me up when my mother tries to tease me about how far away I live from everything.  Sure, I may be 20-something miles or so from Target, but I get there just as quickly (or slowly) as she does to the one barely 2 miles from her house.  :lol:

 

LOL - I totally know what you're saying.  And this drive will take us probably take 20 minutes on the way home at 9 pm.  Sigh.  If only they started 30 minutes later, rush hour would be done. With many of these new drives for us, over time we'll figure out some secrets to cut off time and hopefully be able to keep it to like 30. 

 

My kids used to do an activity on the other end of our urban city.  It was literally 7.8 miles.  It literally NEVER took less than 25 minutes and often 30-35.  That was the bane of my existence for years!  No matter what route we took.  It was a circus school so it was unique.  I was so happy when we were done with it.  There were people driving like 2 hours for that.  Nuts.

 

We really do drive 15 minutes or less to most stuff though.  And can walk/bike many places too.

[yoyoma]

We were willing to drive a lot (30-40 min). One was for an unusual sport, and one was for better dance than available at the time. We were mainly driving my eldest with the other two as passengers, and their academics were all very solid so we had time to spare in our week. A few things made it work for us--a few things others have already mentioned, but I'll just put here in one place:

 

--audiobooks for drive (I actually have very fond memories of us galloping through a few books together)

--having library and/or grocery shopping at destination--two birds with one stone

--coffee shop to have school at with sibling (lot of bonding with younger one here, working on spelling and writing together)

--younger took taekwondo close to the dance studio, and I was able to make the schedules work

--utlizing back of car as picnic or nap area

 

I know several families at our current dance that now do the travel we once did in reverse, and I see them utilizing a lot of the same things (back of car, coffee shop).

 

It was actually nice to get out of the house, and we had many interesting conversations during car time, that I'm not sure we'd have otherwise. Just don't let them be "chauffeured" while tuned into their phone/earphones. That'd be a drag :-/

 

While dance moved closer (10 minutes away now), I still drive youngest to swim 2x a week, and violin 1x a week, both 20 minutes away--not as crazy as we once were, which I appreciate--but for us it was totally worth the quality of lessons and bonding.

[UCF612]

At out old house we drove about 20-30 min give or take for swim, basketball and soccer. We moved and now live about 10 min from all of them now. Although we're looking to switch to a more competitive swim team that is within walking distance of our old house!

[Amira]

I've never signed my children up for something we couldn't walk to. Dh, on the other hand, has driven two hours round trip to get one son to hockey.

[UCF612]

At out old house we drove about 20-30 min give or take for swim, basketball and soccer. We moved and now live about 10 min from all of them now. Although we're looking to switch to a more competitive swim team that is within walking distance of our old house!

 

We drive about 25 min for piano now. It feels a lot further though.

Edited July 19, 2016 by UCF612