Commuting with a baby - can it be done?

[catstar]

I'm starting to consider all my "returning to work" options (a bit depressing at only 24 weeks pregnant) and am becoming increasingly alarmed at the cost of childcare. My company is going to be opening a full time, registered creche for employees early next year. At first I discounted this option because of the location in the City, but it's looking more attractive due to the cost. My main concern is that I would have to commute with a 6 month old baby for just over an hour, including a tube journey on the Waterloo & City line (always unpleasant!). Am I being silly even considering doing this? Does anyone else have any experience? Thanks!

[gemmum]

an hour commute personally i couldn't do it! and it will only get harder as the child gets older and won't sit still!

[frogs]

FWIW I think this will cause you to lose the will to live quite quickly. Might be okay in the morning, will almost certainly be hideous of an evening when she's grizzly and tired. And not a great lifestyle for a baby -- makes for a very long day, and she'll probably fall asleep on the way home and then not go to sleep in her bed.

Nightmare. And I commuted from London to Birmingham (weekly) with a 2 year old for a year, which was bad enough.

[Marina]

We did this for about six months when ds was a baby - travelling overground and occasionally on the Northern line with him in a sling.
It worked OK. The pro for you is that everything is now more buggy accessible in the City than it was in 2000 - you see loads more pushchairs these days in the Square Mile . The con is I still would not like to ingratiate myself with fellow commuters by taking a buggy on the Drain, tbh. And IIRC the access route out at Bank is horrendous if the horrid little lift to street level is out of commission.
We gave up this arrangement mainly because we were not happy with the care he was receiving and transferred him to a local nursery in the burbs.
I missed commuting with him - it gave me more precious hours with him - but he was getting too big for the sling and at that time you could not even get out of Cannon St without bumping a buggy down 12 steps
The other, longer term issue related to workplace creches IMO is that in a very short time (you may not believe me your child's daycare will feed into his or her social life - birthday parties, playdates, setting off to primary school together, etc. Obviously the quality of the daycare is a big factor and workplace ones are usually excellent
HTH

[RanToTheHills]

into London? NO WAY! sorry to shout, but it'd be so stressful,plus i've always found it best for practical reasosons to have childcare near home not near work.

[FairyMum]

We live in West London and my youngest goes to nursery in central London. Both me and DH work in the City. We travel on the tube around 30 mins with kids every day. Now just DS2, but used to be both DS1 and 2. If you find public transport stressful then I don't recommend it, but if you are of the more chilled out type then why not?

[indiajane]

It would be hard - but then again, a work creche would be great, is it alot cheaper?

Would you be able to organise an early start day say 7.30 till 4.00 so you could miss the worst of the traffic?

Failing that perhaps you could reduce your hours to leave early anyway, the saving you may make on using the work creche could possibly pay for it?

[catstar]

Thanks for all the messages! TBH, even thinking about it fills me with horror - and at the end of the day I suppose it shouldn't be all about money ... although it's a pretty big factor. I think it may work better if I could change my hours substantially, but it wouldn't really suit the job. Also, I hadn't thought about the longer term points that Marina raises - playmates, birthday parties, me getting to know local mums etc.

It will be interesting to see how many kids there will be in the creche and I suppose it could always be a back-up for me if other childcare arrangements fail for a day or so, or a childminder goes on holiday etc....

Thanks again ladies!

[frogs]

Actually, thinking back I used to do a commute within London from when dd1 was about 8 months, but it was much shorter (North London to Bloomsbury on a direct bus -- about 20 mins). I used to do it with the baby in a backpack, since back in the days of Routemasters taking a buggy on the bus was a complete non-starter. It was fine sometimes (esp when the bus was empty) but I do also remember it being awful, particularly when the bus was heaving, the baby was whinging hysterically, and the child-haters were all tutting away. Hard work, all in all.

[DimpledThighs]

if you do PLEASE try and work out a way of avoiding rush hour for your own sanity.

I remember once standing on a tube train ds (8months) in a papoose silently weeping into his downy head as pinstriped wankers tutted and barged.