How far do you work from the school?

[Crushedvelvet99]

Hi All,

Just wondering how far you would work from the school, I am looking at working about half an hour away and feel really uneasy about it.

DH is also about half an hour away, parents live about 10 minutes from school but are in not great health so would only ask in an emergency but wouldn't want to lumber them with a sick child.

DC's are in year 2 and if anything happens at school, accident, sickness etc it would take me a good half an hour at best to get to them.

Am I being silly and do any of you work a lot further away?

Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences?

Thank you

I work 20 minutes away, mine are yr 1,2 and 3. And 3 yr old at preschool/CM. I haven't thought about it before, but doesn't concern me. The school will look after the child until you get there. Think of all the commuters, some must have children and it would take a good hour to get from London back to the suburbs.

Both DH and I work about an hour away. (DD1 is in Y1 and DD2 in day care on the same site). In an emergency, I could get a taxi taking about half an hour- but I couldn't drop everything and leave immediately, so it would still take 45 minutes.

I think it's fine. In an absolute emergency, the school would be calling an ambulance. And in anything less than an emergency (like DCs feeling poorly) they'll be fine to wait quietly somewhere until you could get there.

Ds in YR. I work anywhere from half a hour to 1.5 hrs away, depending on traffic. Could be up to 2 hrs away for site visits. DH's office is 15 mins away, but he could be anywhere in the UK at any time.

On mat leave currently, but prior to that was working 30 mins away, and dh continues to work an hour away (by car in both instances)

Posted too soon! Meant to say dd is in year 1. As a previous poster has said, the school will look after your dc whilst you get there. Even if you were on the doorstep, there will be times when you're out and about for the day, surely?

About 15 minutes away.

Both Dp and I are about an hour away (in opposite directions). Dc in pre school and y2. Have only ever been called in to pick up sick dc twice (one for each child) in 2.5 years. Was working closer at the time but still took me nearly an hour to get home due to train times. Dc were fine. Did ask a couple of neighbours if they would be prepared to help in emergency after that.

I worked in site visits so could be anything up to 3 hours away and could abandon in the middle of a h&s inspection

The dc's father refuses to be a school contact as he couldn't possibly leave work as it would 'look bad'

I get there as soon as I can

Depends what work i'm doing. If i'm in the office at home it 5 mins to DS's school and 15mins to DD's. If i'm out on site i could be anywhere up to 2 hours away from school.

I don't think half an hour is a problem at all. The school would be able to look after your child and in an extreme case could take them to the hospital whilst you were on your way. There can't be many parents who have less of a journey than that.

How many contacts do you have to provide? Both DH and i are emergency contacts for both schools but they also have the telephone numbers for my MIL and SIL. Plus i have close mummy friends who i know i could count on.

I'm 45 minutes away, DH 20 minutes. To be honest I think schools just deal with it these days as families with two parents working are so common. And if they don't, they should. Our primary certainly does.

Half an hour is totally fine. It would be good to give your parents number as an "absolute emergency" type of thing, but for the standard reasons you might be called to do a pick up, half an hour would be perfectly reasonable.

Remember that even if you were a SAHM and lived next door to school, it still might take you half an hour to get there if you weren't at home or didn't get the message straight away.

It's not uncommon for parents to be an hour or so away when called to pick up a sick child. We have a sick bay next to the office where they can lay and rest while waiting, and an emergency would mean an ambulance call and the parents meeting us at the hospital anyway, so it's not that big of a deal. As long as the parent says "I'm on my way" instead of "I'm very busy, can't you deal with it" then it's fine.

Until the DCs were 4 and 6 I was 45 mins away and DH 25 mins away from their nursery and school. Now I'm 20 mins away. My back-up (parents) are half an hour away. I feel comfortable with that, they are 10 and 8 now and I think we've only been called once when DS threw up in class a couple of years ago. I'm not in phone contact every minute of every day either, in my old job I didn't take my phone into meetings, I sometimes go swimming and leave my phone in the locker, occasionally go out without taking it. The chances of it happening on any given day are pretty small.

There are two possible scenarios here:

either the child is ill but not in urgent need of medical help (flu, vomiting bug) and in that case they can wait in the sick bay for half an hour or even an hour supervised by a member of staff

or there is an urgent situation (concussion, meningitis) and then the ambulance wouldn't be waiting 10 minutes for you either so you will be making your way straight to A&E

I worked an hour away on public transport (I don't drive) but could get home in half an hour in a taxi. It was fine.

Until last Summer DH and I both had a commute of 40 minutes train journey plus 15 minutes walk to the office. So with emergencies it could mean up to 1 1/2 hour until we arrived at the school if we had to wait for a train.

In the whole time DD was at nursery and now at school (5.5 years) it happened only twice that we were asked to come immediately. Once she developed temperature and once where she fell and had a wound underneath her eye.

Unless the school deems it an emergency your child will wait in another room, cared by an adult. An emergency would mean the school calls an ambulance.

We had to sign forms that we would be happy for the school to do it.

Even SAHM I know are not sitting at home each day next to the phone. I know enough who are out shopping somewhere 30 minutes away or in a gym class without any phone at all.

It is good to leave additional emergency contacts, in our case a friend who worked from home and our childminder who does after-school care but again these may also not able to come immediately despite both living less than 5 minutes from school.

^What Cory said.

Dh and I both 30 minutes away. Luckily have grandparents and willing friend about 5 minutes away.

Just over 1hr away. In an emergency there are friends that I could have to help. But never had an emergency in years.

If they are unwell and need picking up the school are usually quite good and keep them in welfare until I can get there.

About 40 mins by public transport. It's pretty much as close as I can be though (school 5 mins from home in suburbs, I work in town centre). ExP is about 40 mins by car. Grandparents aren't any closer really.

But as cory said, either it's not urgent, DS just needs picking up at some point, in which case 30 mins is fine, IMHO, or it's an emergency and he'd be taken to hospital, which is actually closer to my work than school is.

Thank you for you great replies, it's made me feel a lot better and I am being a bit silly.

I think it comes from DS coming out of school with an extremely high temprature of about 103 and no one had noticed. He was only 4 and hadn't told anyone he was not feeling well so I suppose not schools fault - but still a worry.

Makes you wonder how ill he would have to be for someone to notice!

Hi Crushed:

If your parents (10 minutes away) are willing to help in a crisis - then I don't think you have a problem.

They can collect your DC and hold the fort until you or your DH can get there.

Frankly most schools have parents sign a form that gives them permission to take your child to hospital in an emergency - so please be reassured that if it was truly serious - say stabbed by crazed student during bread making - you'd be asked to go and meet her at the children's hospital.

I know at our school, where many pupils are children of hospital staff, there are issues about getting away (especially for theatrical nurses) so they tend to be very understanding that parents can't just get there in

I'm often several hours flight away. But my brilliant childminder is only 10 minutes walk away. DH is usually no more than 2 hours away. So we manage!

Both work about 20 mins away, although DH could be upto an hour away, sometimes more. Mine are Y2 and Y5.

Only ever been phoned once when dd had a small cut above her eye. Luckily DH was home anyway.

I work half an hour from DCs' school, so does DH, though on occasion we both have to travel a couple of hours away, but try to arrange it so that we're not both hours away on the same day. I've only ever been called to pick up a poorly child once, on that occasion I was at home (work part time) but if I was at work then DC could just wait quietly in the first aid room.

In an emergency (ie requires hospital attention) a friend going in wouldn't be much good as they wouldn't have authorisation to make medical decisions - whereas the school does.

I broke my arm at school in Y5 - my dad worked an hour away & my mum about 20 mins away. In the event they couldn't get hold of my mum, so it was about 2hrs later when my dad finally met us at the hospital. It was fine.

I work 1.5 hrs away (if train time works), DP works 20 mins away but is a doctor so highly unlikely to be able to drop everything & leave. I don't worry about it, for the reasons cory outlined.