Commute for working mom with newborn (house, taxi, live in)

[Kayla888]

Moms with newborns in the city, what is your commute? I’m looking at a 9-5 job with an hour commute each way door to door. It doesn’t sound great but in this city even if you live and work in the same borough you are likely looking at at least 45 min. Wondering what other nyc moms think about this?

[Dave 92 LSC]

2 hours a day wasted on commute adds up fast. At some point you will get tired of wasting your 10 hours each week on commute.
Thats time that will never be replaced.

Just something to think about.

[Emm0011]

Not necessarily true of commute times. When I lived in Manhattan and worked in downtown Brooklyn my commute was like 20 minutes

[citylove101]

I presume you have family (spouse? mother?) to help with the baby. If not, you will need a very good-paying job to afford a nanny or other child care.

Even with that, however, be aware that after a day at work you will sometimes feel exhausted and just not want to deal with a baby. Sometimes you'll just want to relax without worrying about the kid. So the critical thing is to make sure you can build in some down time at home to attend to your own needs. That's easier said than done, but if you don't do it, you can end up stressed and unhappy beyond belief.

[Trisky]

I'm not a parent but I commuted from Queens to Midtown for 20 years at 1.5-2 hours each way. You might be setting aside 45 minutes for a commute but that doesn't take into account trains not showing up, passengers getting sick, police activity or traffic if you take a bus like I did.

You will never get that time back and you can never truly calculate how taxing it is and how long it will truly take every day.

[Tencent]

As others have said, you may want to reconsider. Life is too short to spend 40 hours a month commuting. Especially as a new mother. That is time you should be spending bonding with your child.

[EastOrangegirl]

I must agree that is a lot of time spending traveling back and forth. Maybe if you think outside of NYC you may find some good options. For example, East Orange, NJ the commute time from EO to NYC 33rd Street is 40 mins. The good childcare centers run about $300 a week. It gets cheaper at the child grows. Best of luck.

[90sSitcom]

I think prior to covid 10 to 12 hours days including the commute was the norm for many people. Now working from home has changed that for many. Unfortunately some of us still need to go to an actual job and can't work from home so we will still have to do those longer hours. Many years ago I was a live in nanny, both parents worked. Mom just had a newborn. Making three children for them. They left the house at 6:30 a.m. and typically came home between 6:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. At least your day isn't that long.