From April, I’ll have one 3-year old in Yochien, and my younger 2-year old will fortunately be in the ninka hoikuen that is in the same facility, so they’ll both in the same place (so grateful for this!)
Currently we own a great electric-assist child-carting bicycle and with a front and back child seat. This is how we take them to hoikuen. The place is an easy 10min cycle, right near the station I take to work, so I can drop them, park the bike at the station and commute to work by train.
Anyhow, for the back bicycle seat, the weight limit is much higher (can use until maybe elementary age), but the front seat has a limit of 15 kg. Currently, my lighter one is almost 14kg, and he’s quite tall so the straps are already feeling a bit tight.
Once the 3yo is used to Yochien in the spring, using the bus will be an option for him in the morning, so no problems for drop-offs. It’s the pick-ups that we are trying to sort out, because Yochien ends at 2pm and our 3yo will go over to the hoiku side until we pick both of them up around 5pm.
By foot, it might take me 25 minutes to get home from there at a fairly brisk pace, but toddler pace could take about an hour!
There is a closer Yochien in our neighborhood that we considered, but it is really traditional; it doesn’t have a hoikuen on site, ends at 2:30 and on Wednesdays it ends at noon!
I suppose the only option would be for me to commute all the way home first, then take the car (and partner wouldn’t be able to use the car for work, another headache), but this means I’d have to leave work so much earlier. Also, the parking lot for the Yochien is really far from the facility and getting there by car is more difficult because vehicles can’t drive through the pedestrian/cycling paths that we could usually take.
I feel like maybe there is a simpler solution that I’m not thinking of. I don’t feel like my kids are particularly heavy (average according to the charts). Do they make bicycles with front seats that have higher weight limit? Or maybe one of those bike trailers? That might be difficult to store, but I could always try checking if the Yochien would let me keep it there.
Grateful to hear if anyone has found a good solution for this!
by irishtwinsons