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hugo7
2 days WFH, 2 days in the office. Moved down to 4 days/week when my daughter was 1 yo and started nursery and wife went back to work (also part time). So I have a "daddy day" but also do two days of drop-off/collection from school when I'm WFH.
Office days are mostly to get out of the house and away from wife/daughter - it's not a huge flat and neither of them really understand the concept of "door shut = at work".
There's no reason I couldn't be 100% remote, the few in-person meetings I have are only done that way because the majority of the people happen to be in the office that day. Some of the people I notionally share an office with live in Coventry, Northampton, Cornwall and one lived in Brussels for a good few years.
My boss of the last 3 years is in India and we've never met in person. My main colleague of 8 years is in North Carolina and we've never met in person. The SQA team that support us are in Kuala Lumpur and we've never met any of them in person. etc.
Saying that, I do find one day a week to have face to face meetings with some colleagues useful. Some things that may take an hour or longer to sort out by instant messenger, email, or a phone call, or even video conferencing, can often be sorted out much quicker or with less misunderstanding by going over to talk to them and pointing at things on a screen. Also nice to be away from distractions like ringing doorbells (deliveries for flats above/below) and the like (our office is like a library, it's lovely).
So whilst I could work anywhere with an Internet connection I love where I live (SW15) and wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now. The schools are good, we (and our daughter) have a good set of local friends and don't want to have to rip that up and start again somewhere else. Within 5 minutes of running or I'm on wooded tracks on Putney Heath and Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park beyond that. I've got a local 10k loop that I can do and usually only have to stop to cross one road (and could avoid that by using a bridge). I can be out in the Surrey Hills is no time on the bike, etc.
Can't move to anywhere in particular to be closer to family as they're quite spread out. A 2 hour train journey to see either sets of parents is not much different from 5 hours to see one set and 3 hours to see the other.
This may change in 10 years when my daughter is old enough to go to uni (or whatever else she wants to do) but I'm not going anywhere whilst we've got this setup.
I might have had a different outlook had we thought about it before starting a family, but then my wife has much stronger views on where she wants to live and, with me being happy anywhere (grew up in a rural village, University in a big UK city, and then lived in various major world cities), that works for me.
Sure I could punch out and buy a house in the sticks, with unnecessary extra bedrooms, a big garden and a garage etc, but I'll be able to do that in 10 years time too if I want (and won't need as much space either so money will go further).
Amongst all of the friends who upped and disappeared to the country many love it and it really does work for them, but I've got a few friends who've sold up in London and moved out to the sticks to start families/etc, boasted about their huge house and a garden that's bigger than our local park, and a few years later they're desperate to move back to London but can't afford to.