Just to add for your friend's benefit. It's completely doable to do a long day with young children, as long as you have a supportive partner AND you love what you do and feel it's worth it.
I've done a London/thereabouts commute most of the time since my eldest (now 6) was 11 months. It's not every day, usually only 3 days a week. It's 3 hours door to door for me (live deep in the SW). I'm in the office core hours 10-4 ish and work on the train/from home/have wfh days.
It's actually been fine (once you adjust to it, bit of a shock to the system at first, I hardly even think about how other people have shorter commutes now, seems very normal). But the key really is having a supportive partner who can work flexibly (or family support from other sources). My dh has always been incredibly supportive of my career. I've trained a long time to do what I do and it's considered quite a high status career. He is technically the higher earner now as he's self-employed and his salary has increased significantly in recent years. He has lots of high pressure deadlines, but is able to work flexibly. He understands that I wouldn't be able to have my career at all if he didn't get stuck in and carry his part of the parenting/housework load. So he does the school run 3 days a week, and pretty much is the only parent at home those days up until I get home at bath time. He puts our eldest to bed and then goes downstairs and does all the work he didn't get done during the day because he was with the dc. That makes it possible for me to have the time/energy to work the hours I do, and also so I can be home and present the other days (when he often works long hours).
I don't think it can sensibly be done though without having that level of support from someone (whether it's a partner, other family, paid help, etc.). I would be run ragged otherwise trying to be two places at once. So it's really important to make sure that's in place before your friend goes back to work.