How long & far would/do you travel to take your child to school?

If you drive your kids to school, how long do you think it takes you or how long would you be prepared to travel for (time wise & kms) to get them there?

We're looking at a situation where public transport may not be a viable option, so I'm wondering how long/far is fair on the kids/me to take them to and from school.

If you do travel, how do you find handling later events such as sport or extra curricular activities?

Do your kids make friends with kids in the opposite direction and then you have to travel even further for them to hang out?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Ps. My DS will be starting school next year.

I have to drive my kids. Its probably somewhere between 10 to 12 minutes drive depending on traffic - about 8kms. When we moved here a couple of years ago we had first been looking at properties further out that would have had a drive time of more like 20 minutes and 20kms odd. TBH that is the reason we chose to buy where we are - I had imagines of spending hours in the car each day driving from home to school, back home, back to school to after school stuff etc.

They're still a little young for true after school activities, but I've found a lot of things that we've done until now - gym, dancing and swimming - have been a bit limited. Swimming was ok, but no options as to where we want to go unless we drive 30 minutes plus. Gym was either a 30 minute drive or a 45 minute drive, and dancing about 20 to 25. It was a major pain in the whatsit to do that on a regular basis, not to mention pricey in terms of petrol etc. Now that they're starting to go to birthday parties, the ones at play centres etc are usually 25 odd minutes drive away. Their school friends are a bit scattered given the sort of area we live in, and the fact that its a private school so students come from all over. Most tend to be close to the school so not too bad.

it's very tiring.

by the time i add up driving time, leaving early to avoid worst of the peak hour traffic and getting there in time to get an ok park, the waiting around, it's 3.5 hours out of my day. That's alot.

this is the first term, so it's all new to me.

my child is very envious of the kids in her class who live locally, that ride or walk or scooter to school. So am I.

it's just hit me, i'll be doing this (3.5 hours a day) for the next seven years. Sigh.

at the moment, i drive about 3 minutes.
once they hit high school though, the drive will be about 20 mins. i would not be willing to drive any further than that.

I find its not just how far it is away, but also the bloody traffic!! DS goes to a school that is only a short distance away (too far to walk, I think its around 6km?) and I leave home at 8.20 to get there by 8.45 (!!!) and then its 9.30 by the time I've dropped him off and get home and then I leave around 2.40pm to go get him - and get home around 3.30pm. So to add extra travelling time in actually driving him to school would do my head in, it takes 10-15 minutes to get through to the other end of the street that his school is on in order to get a park!