Commute to downtown NY/Brooklyn-Please help!!! (West Orange, Orange: car insurance, co-op, daycares)
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That's not what I said. We currently pay property tax (5k) plus he pays city tax (5-6k/year) and we don't get any services in return. The public school has 30 kids per class and no extra curriculars, the cops don't care and the streets are filthy. My husband pays about a G a month for commute. So moving would give us space, better schools, less crime, reduction in commute cost by $500/mo, and the tax diff is almost made up. So same price...way better environment for the kids. We make less than 200k a year combined. I've done the calculations, it wouldn't be much more for us to move to Jersey. I only mentioned the costs b/c you were saying my commute cost will be insane. It won't crazier than our current commute costs. Anyway like I said, I'm not asking IF I should move. I'm asking where.
As a Brooklyn parent myself, I also agree with all of this! The astronomical cost of child-rearing in the city (not to mention the issues with trash, safety, etc. that you point out) is definitely something to consider in all these time-value-money calculations. Right now we pay a fortune to live in a third-floor walkup that's blazing hot in the summer, freezing cold in the winter and provides us with the bare minimum of living space and appliances that are falling apart. We're zoned for 321 in Park Slope so I guess the schools are good but the cost and competition for nursery school until they hit four and are eligible for universal preK is enough to send me to NJ for sure where I can get a mortgage interest deduction, closet space, a small yard, a driveway (!!!!!) and a bedroom for each of my kids for what we pay now in rent. And I think the trash has gotten worse even since we moved here two years ago. Literally on weekend mornings it is everywhere.
Good luck with your search. It's not an easy decision for sure and I don't envy your situation but I agree you can definitely find something better than what you're both dealing with now!
Our first night in NJ when we closed the door on the kids room was still something I remember with great fondness. She'd literally been sleeping with the crib in a closet until then.
I've been thinking about this one. How do you figure you'd see the kids for 4 more hrs a day? School starts at 8am. My husband sees them until they get in the building. This wouldn't change if he worked 10 minutes away. I leave at 6:30 for work. If I worked 10 minutes away, I'd get too see the kids for 20 minutes at 7:15am (if you have kids you know this is not a great time to socialize with them). If we both worked 9-5 10 min away, I'd then see my kids at 5:30ish for the 2.5 hrs till bedtime as I do now with an hour long commute. My husband would indeed gain 2 hrs in the evening with the kids. If we live in Jersey, mornings would be the same, and in evening I'd get them at 6 (a 30 minute loss of supervising homework) and he'd see them at 6:45-7. He's lost 45 minutes with them on his commute. Grand total lost with children per day with current commutes = 2h20m and Jersey - 1h15m. Nowhere near 4 hrs.
I think you should start using some scheduling software to plan out your life in NJ With automated alerts and some kind of statistical feature that will allow you to set the probability of the delays in your and your husband commutes. Not sure if MS Project has all these features. Does not sound like too much fun, sorry ...
Last edited by DefiantNJ; 01-06-2016 at 04:02 PM..
As a Brooklyn parent myself, I also agree with all of this! The astronomical cost of child-rearing in the city (not to mention the issues with trash, safety, etc. that you point out) is definitely something to consider in all these time-value-money calculations. Right now we pay a fortune to live in a third-floor walkup that's blazing hot in the summer, freezing cold in the winter and provides us with the bare minimum of living space and appliances that are falling apart. We're zoned for 321 in Park Slope so I guess the schools are good but the cost and competition for nursery school until they hit four and are eligible for universal preK is enough to send me to NJ for sure where I can get a mortgage interest deduction, closet space, a small yard, a driveway (!!!!!) and a bedroom for each of my kids for what we pay now in rent. And I think the trash has gotten worse even since we moved here two years ago. Literally on weekend mornings it is everywhere.
Good luck with your search. It's not an easy decision for sure and I don't envy your situation but I agree you can definitely find something better than what you're both dealing with now!
Haha we too live in a third floor walk up with similar temp issues. Our zone school sucks so my poor husband is driving our oldest to a charter school in Mill Basin (20min drive each way), coming back to sheepshead, dropping the little one at daycare and only then getting on the road to Mahwah. I'm surprised he's still more or less sane. Moving would cut that whole morning situation in half for him while only increasing my morning nightmare by half hour.
See, your commute to the city would probably be about 30 mins from Park Slope. I'm 20 minutes further (sheepshead bay) plus 20 min walk to train station. So I'm doing an hour commute got as long as I can remember. Hour and a half isn't a huge stretch for better life.
I think you should start using some scheduling software to plan out your life in NJ With automated alerts and some kind of statistical feature that will allow you to set the probability of the delays in your and your husband commutes. Not sure if MS Project has all these features. Does not sound like too much fun, sorry ...
Lol I'm big on schedules and planning things so I just might.
I think you should start using some scheduling software to plan out your life in NJ With automated alerts and some kind of statistical feature that will allow you to set the probability of the delays in your and your husband commutes. Not sure if MS Project has all these features. Does not sound like too much fun, sorry ...
Haha we too live in a third floor walk up with similar temp issues. Our zone school sucks so my poor husband is driving our oldest to a charter school in Mill Basin (20min drive each way), coming back to sheepshead, dropping the little one at daycare and only then getting on the road to Mahwah. I'm surprised he's still more or less sane. Moving would cut that whole morning situation in half for him while only increasing my morning nightmare by half hour.
See, your commute to the city would probably be about 30 mins from Park Slope. I'm 20 minutes further (sheepshead bay) plus 20 min walk to train station. So I'm doing an hour commute got as long as I can remember. Hour and a half isn't a huge stretch for better life.
You know, I was going to say that it makes sense to stay in Brooklyn until your youngest can benefit from free public pre-K, but if your public schools are not even good.. Oy..
We're staying for pre-k for sure. We use the same daycare for pre-k for $300/mo for full day. He loves it there so we'll stick around. I was debating staying for full day kindergarten at same charter school (dropping them both off will save husband 20 min of driving) but we'll see how long we last and how much K is in Jersey for full day.
We're staying for pre-k for sure. We use the same daycare for pre-k for $300/mo for full day. He loves it there so we'll stick around. I was debating staying for full day kindergarten at same charter school (dropping them both off will save husband 20 min of driving) but we'll see how long we last and how much K is in Jersey for full day.
K is free, but after care runs me almost $600/mo so $300/mo for pre-K sounds pretty good.
K is free, but after care runs me almost $600/mo so $300/mo for pre-K sounds pretty good.
Is this in Livingston? They have full day K? My friend from New Providence is paying $1200 for K (private) bc she said after care would be as much as a month of private dc. I thought $600 is aftercare for 1st grade and up?
That's around what after care costs here so I'd be ok with that. In a year LO would be starting K and older one 4th grade.
Last edited by biohazard123; 01-06-2016 at 05:49 PM..
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With automated alerts and some kind of statistical feature that will allow you to set the probability of the delays in your and your husband commutes. Not sure if MS Project has all these features. Does not sound like too much fun, sorry ...
