Stay in town close to schools or move to village?

[Birchwoods]

We’ve been to see a house today in a village that’s about 15-20 mins from where we live now. DD1 will start secondary school in Sept, which is a ten minute walk from us now, DD2 will start primary school in September, we haven’t applied for her place yet as still undecided on schools.

We want a bigger garden and would love to live more rurally, but if we move to this village it’ll mean school drop offs and picks ups - a journey of nearly 20 mins each way - potentially for the next fourteen years, plus giving lifts to and from town to visit friends etc. I’m thinking that if the age gap was smaller it might be better, but as my DDs will never overlap at the same school it’s probably a bad idea, which is a shame as the house is perfect.

Has anyone else moved to a less convenient location and found it was worth the extra inconvenience? Or has anyone regretted it?

I found living in a village very restrictive as a teen. Plus most school years one or two of my peers were killed in car accidents. 17 year olds and windy narrow lanes are not a great combination.

Personally I cannot imagine choosing a rural life for teenagers. Also crap for parents a uni friend lives rurally she barely socialises and lives a very dull life driving teens around. No thanks.

In my view never move somewhere without public transport or facilities. You don't know what the future holds and facilities and transport are the mainstay of life and connection to friends and family.

From someone who has been driving kids to school for 27yrs, don’t do it!

Don’t do it!!! Not unless you really, really like driving. I can’t tell you the hours I spend driving my rural teenagers places (and sometimes waiting for them). It’s basically my main hobby now.

My rural friend pretty much doesn’t have a social life of her own. Dh and I like to be out and about ourselves at the weekend seeing friends / dinner / cinema not driving round dark lanes.

I live in that situation. We had a village primary so that was fine but secondary school this rural buses were a pain. Your village a could have a dedicated school bus so you’d have to look into what provision is provided.

I found college and their first jobs the hardest part. Transport to college isn’t free like school transport. It’s £400 a term for us so the chances are someone would have to take them until they can drive and the same with first jobs, if the bus service is poor or doesn’t run early or late then them getting to a job before they can drive is difficult.

Obviously there will be leisure pick ups too depending on how sociable your children are or how many classes they might do in the evening.

On balance, I found rural living good for primary children, ok for secondary and hard for young adults. That said, mine learned to drive as soon as they could do with each one it only lasted until they got their first car.

Now they are grown I am debating if it would be more sensible to move into town for my next life
stage as I get older.

I've just calculated i spend around 16hrs a week either driving DDs to their extracurricular, or hanging around while they are at them. Thats not including picking up from friends, or dropping in town etc. And fortunately no school runs as the Secondary school is in our village (serving the whole area, not just ours!)
I don't exactly mind doing it... but it is tiring. Its mot a reason not to move to a village... my teens like where we live. But its something to consider

I actually changed jobs to be able to drive teens to the station for college - no safe cycling route on roads with blind bends and blind hill summits and no cycle paths nor pavements for long stretches - really dangerous especially in the winter when it's dark.

It depends how bad the public transport situation is where you are, but we are heading towards hamlet territory facilities wise (too many houses to be a hamlet maybe, but no shop, no primary school let alone secondary, school bus for primary and the secondary which goes to age 16, but have to walk / cycle two miles to a bus stop to one post 16 option or cycle five miles on the route mentioned and take the train to the other options).

It's easier now my older children are driving, but for a few years I had three teenagers, and one after another went to the post 16 college requiring getting to the train station, because it was a better option for their subjects. For a few years my life did resolve mostly around driving and working, not to mention being the last place in the civilised world where groceries and takeaway restaurants don't deliver, which also removes time saving options...