Someone else is watching the toddlers—-no one is doing a full days worth of work while taking care of multiple toddlers.

If that person and/or day care can take care of the kids for x hours of work plus a 1 hour commute, they can take care of the kids for x hours of work plus 1 hour of “me time” if that’s what the OP thinks they need.

That’s what I meant when I said it’s not about the kids. It’s about the person watching the kids.

There’s no reason for someone to put themselves into a situation that forces them to spend an hour commuting each day in order to get some alone time.