Anyone travel for services for their kids?

[jess_g]

I posted this once on the lounge asking if anyone would travel an hour for a weekly kids class and everyone said that traveling more than 30 minutes for a class or drs appointment was too much for them. If only they lived here. We travel into Boston for appointments all the time and thats about an 1 1/2 trip each way. We also travel a lot for classes and therapies for my son. Where we live they seam to concentrate alot of the services in the richer areas of the state (meaning where the typical family lives in a mansion), so we have to travel for services for our son.

I am looking into a social skills class for my son right now and everything is at least an hour away. I am wondering if other parents do this kind of driving for their kids and how far you would be willing to travel for something like a social skills class or an addaptive gym class?

Thanks, Its so nice to have a group of like minded parents to ask this to.

Jessica.

[Pepper]

Right now, I don't have to drive too far for services. We live just north of Boston and I go all over within 128 (mostly Wakefield, Waltham, and Lexington for the things that aren't in my immedite town), but haven't had to go beyond it yet.

I feel pretty lucky that we can usually get what we need nearby (once we figure out just what it IS that we need, lol!). But I would drive if I had to - DS1 is just a really complicated, but really wonderful, little guy. If I thought it would help I would drag him anywhere :-)

[TwoBees]

If it was important enough to me, then I would travel. DH and I have talked about finding specialists for DD if necessary, and we would travel for that if need be.

I just discovered that my FSA will cover mileage and gas for medically-related travel (to appointments, etc). It will also cover other transportation to appointments, such as taxi or bus. If you have an FSA, look into that. It may not help save time, but it might help save your wallet.

[Gena]

We live in a small city and so far we've been lucky in that most of the services DS has needed are located closeby. Right now the furtherst we have gone are 40 minutes (each way) for special needs soccer league. And we've traveled about 1 hour to the closest large city for a second opinion appointment for his eyes. We really liked the second opinion doc, so we may take DS to see him more in the future.

I'm willing to travel farther, depending on what the service is and what DS's needs. As he gets older and his needs change, I know that the big city 1 hour away has alot more services & options than our small city, so that's something we keep in mind. Another fator is scheduling. DH and I both work full-time. For occasional events, like appointments with specialists, we can manage to take time off work. Repeating regular events, like ST/OT, would be harder to travel for.

[hillview]

It would depend on my options and DC's needs. I can imagine situations where I would travel over an hour for something that I thought was special/needed. I leave quite near Boston so for ME in my current location I couldn't imagine doing it. Another factor for me would be if DC did well in the car for longish trips.
/hillary

[DietCokeLover]

I have to travel an hour to get everywhere or for anything. My hour is on 2 lane mountain roads through cow pastures. Very frustrating to live so far from "civilization" but we do what we have to do for our kids.

[hbridge]

Yep, fortunately it was only for 12 weeks, but two hours each way for 1.5 hour "appointment". We would simply make a day of it. Thankfully DC didn't have school that day and we could give the day to the appt.

I would do it again if needed!

[karstmama]

hell, we traveled an hour each way for *braces*. we live in the sticks, so traveling an hour for a class wouldn't make us blink.

our nicu clinic / surgery / gastroenterology / endocrinology appointments are 3 hours away. thank goodness we don't go as often - we started out going about every week or two.

so, yes, if you think it would help, an hour each way trip per week would be reasonable to me.

[egoldber]

I think it depends on what else is going on. For the occasional appointment, or for a short lived series of appointments, sure we could make it work. But we could not do that for extended weekly therapy (for example) with mine and DH's work schedule and having to balance the needs of our other child as well.

[HIU8]

Not for OT, but there are a number of OT's from 10-30 minutes of us to choose from. We are going to KKI for a developmental ped. We have also been to Wilmer Eye Institute 1x for each DC so far (different eye issues). So, yes, I would travel (but not for prolonged recurring sessions).