Parenting and living close to work?

detoxkid

Hi all, I'd be interested in your views. We have two kids, oldest is 2 and I'm on maternity leave with my 8 month old, due to return to work soon. We need to put down roots and figure where the girls will go to school etc. I have a great job on paper which pays well and is stable. I hate my job but we rely on it for money, no hope of giving it up etc. I work in a small boring town which I would never aspire to go to apart from to work. Hubby's job is less stable and is 40 minutes away from where I work. He is only starting off his career and doesnt have permanency. Neither job is close to family support. At the minute we live 30 minutes from both job. If we are lucky enough to get a mortgage when I go back to work we need to figure out where to buy. That's really what I would appreciate views on - do we buy close to where I work - thereby I'd be close to where they go to school etc, home earlier from work. Or do we buy 30/40 minutes away in a gorgeous town beside the sea which is picture perfect and has great schools etc. As the girls get older would we regret not living where we work in your experiences? Sorry for the essay...

HelgaWard

Could you rent in each place for maybe 6 months, to see what real life is like in both, and decide based on that?

Roesy

I think an awful lot of people don't live where they work. I'd be inclined to look at the facilities/schools/house prices/cost of living etc in each place and weigh it up that way.

Rubberchikken

30/40 minutes commute to work from a place that you'd be very happy to live in would seem ideal to me.
if the town you work in is small and boring and only work draws you there, then i'd be unwilling to suggest looking at houses there.

pwurple

We put huge amounts of thought and effort into this.

I don't have a fixed base of work, I move around a lot. My husband is in the same work building for years, and is very stable. We chose location of our house based on schools close to our support structure (our parents / sibilngs).

Our reasoning, is that when the children get sick, I might be out of the country, or away somewhere. My husband is often uncontactable at work, so if someone needs to go pick them up, it's probably our parents.

We rented in the area for a year first to make sure it suited us. But we are happy with our choice now. I've rearranged my work so that I'm very close most of the time, and my husband is still only 20 minutes away from the house. We are walking distance to schools, which is great since we decided to get an au pair as the kids got bigger. So no driving required at all for the kids. They can walk to school, friends and sports. It makes things very simple.

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

jester77

You will change jobs plenty of times during your career. Would be silly imo to buy something close to the current job. Buy where you are happy with, in 10 years you will most likely be in a different job which may not be close to where you originally purchased.