To think that school run drivers are selfish cunts?

I’ve had to start driving after my last landlord sold up so I’m now too far to walk.

Your not wrong op. Some are complete fuck wits, I don’t know what goes through their heads, driving on the pavement on blind bends, parking up the pavement so you have to go in the road. Over drives, hurtling at ludicrous speeds. Just stopping in the street making it single lane. Engine left running for the 20 minutes they arrived early to get ‘their’ spot.

I park a little way away and try to be respectful of the way I park to the residents as it’s shit for them.

Eugh didn't post the extra bit where I say that planners should be assuming working parents are commuting and plan accordingly. We have a drop off bay at my DCs school here in a highly urban area with a police officer directing traffic. You have about 30 seconds to get your kids out of your car once you are in the bay. After that the police officer is talking to the kids to get them moving.

I'm in London and there is a popular, over subscribed primary school in my road. The catchment is less than 500m apparently but half the pupils arrive by car
There is decent public transport too.
The trouble is the road is quite narrow and when cars are parked each side only one car can fit down the middle. This causes huge issues as half the cars are massive 4x4s (which are obviously essential in London) and some of the drivers so bad they can't seem to reverse them. I actually had to reverse a car for one poor lady who was stuck and couldn't reverse round a corner as she was so stressed out.
I don't understand why people do it. The traffic is so bad at rush hour that it can't be quicker to drive

I've noticed the drop off and pick up at the local village primary school is horrendous. It didn't used to be that way. I noticed it's parents picking up and dropping off their DC on their way to/from work. The major issue with the commute to school is that the parent is doing both directions so it's not a 10min walk but 25min (5mins to get them through the gate).

I struggle a lot in the mornings because I'm working from 5am, DH is normally out from 5:30 at the latest, that's if he is home. It's just not realistic to expect all dual working families to walk their DC to school.

Some are.
what's the point?

I'm not.

Your title is unacceptable, OP.

Yes many school run drivers are absolute selfish dicks. My dd's school are constantly sending out texts reporting complaints they have received from neighbouring houses/housing estates and asking people to be considerate. The school and residents have also approached the council about the issues, due to the high levels of complaints, and the warden is often seen waiting outside the school and surrounding areas to catch the worst offenders out. Last week we received a text because some arsehole had half parked on someone's front garden and, due to the heavy rain that afternoon, churned up the end of the resident's lawn when they pulled away. Just utter selfishness. The stupid thing is that I live a 7 minute walk from school and no one parks near my road where it's clear of cars and offers plenty of easy legal parking, the drivers all want to park within 30 seconds of the school entrance.

SO much this. I live on a side road opposite my DDs' school and every single day someone parks blocking the lollypop man from crossing kids over, every day people are parked with all four wheels on the pavement at the corner making it difficult to get past (impossible if you have a pushchair!) and people park on all of the double yellow lines.

Periodically, DP gets super annoyed about it and emails the council who send out traffic wardens to give tickets, but it only stops the ridiculous parking for a day or two.

Yep.

I've lost track of the amount of times I haven't been able to leave my drive to get to work because of some utter dickhead.

My new favourite is to come home at school time. If my drive is blocked then I pen them in.

I have to pick ds up 10 minutes before school starts kicking out, 20 minutes before the juniors finish.

As he can’t cope with the walk home I have to drive. I park about a 3-4 minute walk away because even at the earlier time I can’t park outside school because so many people are sat their, including at least two parents of juniors who live within a 2 minute walk yet would rather sit in the car for over half an hour

I don’t get it! And even worse so many of the park dangerously.

I agree, nearly got run over today while walking to work (not for the first time). I was crossing a road when a mum suddenly turned into the road I was crossing without indicating and nearly hit me. She didn't even look at me.

I’d say you were a goady fuck because no one at our school parks like this, but in DDs old school it was pandemonium. It can be truly awful, but then not all places or people are the same

I think this is a bit unfair.
Our school has a massive catchment area and has 600 pupils (primary)

People have to get their kids to school and on time and also have to pick them up.

Not everyone lives within walking distance.

The only place we can park is in residential are. Some parents have no other choice.
I have to leave the house ridiculously early to try and get a parking space and same for pick up.

It’s a nightmare by our school but what are we supposed to do? Maybe councils should offer more in the way of school buses. I can’t get to my school on public transport.

I do feel sorry for our local residents but I also feel sorry for parents who are just trying their best.

Our local school is over subscribed and has been for years but the council are doing nothing to alleviate the pressure on the school.

Theproblem is that everyone who drives dc to school is adamant there is no alternative, that their situation is unique and that there is no solution and that they are not part of the problem anyway.

It is always the ‘others’. The people who bought a house near a school, the people who live close, leave late and park badly, the pub that stopped their car park being used, the after school activity 10 miles away in the countryside, the unflexible employer.

I thought the same way until I realised how much I hated the school run, the damage it was doing to my kids in terms of air pollution, seeing my stress and other stressed parents and the risk of accidents.

I now take it in turns with other mums to walk 6 kids to school (over 2 miles and several roads to cross), one day a week youngest cycles in a cycle train (which is huge and very cool according to him!) and hoping to increase that to everyday, both ways as he gets more confident. I have dialysis three days a week and also work full time hours around that, with lots of other hospital appts which can be short notice and inconvenient times. It would be much easier for me to drive the dc every day but I think the time spent organising and juggling is well worth it not to contribute to the awful school run and is much better all round.

Our primary school has nowhere to park, and I mean nowhere there is no allocated space for cars only staff parking. I've been forced onto the road with my double pram and 4yr old as so many drivers park over the pavements. They only take in children 2 mile or closer, I don't understand why parents don't just walk with their children!

Agree with most of the comments about selfish inconsiderate twats.

The last time my drive was blocked the driver said "well, its only for 10 minutes". That's not the point. (and the car was there for nearly half an hour because she had to get out the pram and install the baby first, then of course the faff in reverse when she came back. I wonder how long it would have taken her to walk all the way from home with the baby already in the pram?)

I live about 300 yards from a fairly large primary. Its on an estate that was built in the late 1960s, so not car friendly. The main road through the estate is only wide enough for 2 cars, and has bends and chicanes designed to slow down the traffic. There are yellow markings outside the school entrance which are (mostly) adhered to, but this means all the surrounding streets are full of parked cars especially in the afternoon. When cars are parked on the main road, there is no room for buses and emergency vehicles to get past, and the congestion is made worse because vehicles trying to overtake the parked cars can't see if there is oncoming traffic round the bend. The line of parked cars on the main road is often over 200 yards long.

The school was enlarged 2 or 3 years ago. The LA ignored all the residents' protests about traffic problems, suggesting a "walking bus" could be set up that involved having a parking area (ON PRIVATE PROPERTY) about 500 yards away. This never happened. They did enlarge the car park, but it's for staff only (and still not big enough). They have absolutely no intention of providing a parents car park or dropping-off point: the spare land behind the school (currently green belt) has been earmarked for more housing. Buses are not frequent enough nor are they routed through most of the catchment area. So parents use their cars. In most cases the journey is less than a mile.

When I was that age I walked everywhere. Its good exercise.

I rarely took my DC to secondary school by car (live in a village so there are school buses) but on the odd times I did I would drop them off some 300 yards away in a non-residential side road and they would walk the rest of the way.
Closer to the school the parking was bedlam - it still is.
Quite a few kids who live in the town (as opposed to the villages which are served by buses) do actually walk but in a school of over 1,200 pupils it doesn't need that many twattish parents to screw up both traffic and parking.

Not everyone is inconsiderate - I walk when I can but probably need the car half the time due to work and other commitments. I always leave 5 minutes earlier so that I get a parking space and am careful with all the children around but I guess we are pretty lucky that where the school is there are a lot of parking spots and two entrances so the parking is spread out. However you will always get the idiots that park on the double yellows, staff car park and in the disabled bays, our schools pretty hot on this and local police and parking wardens are often round.

I live by the local secondary and the amount of times people are parked across my drive when I'm coming back drives me mad! Plus the fact there is a massive car park in the school so there isn't really an excuse just the fact that it's easier than waiting to go in/out the car park because of traffic. Normally a beep and they move but I literally had to get out my car the other day and knock on someone's window as she was so busy on her phone!! 🤦‍♀️

*every other kind

**I don't get people who buy houses near schools then whinge about cars on the school run.

I bought my house because its amazing the responsible parents I have no issues with. I have issues with parking illegally and dangerously.
I have complained to the school when cars block the road the last occasion blocked the bin lorry from getting in. They got so fed up with waiting that they left so our bins didn't get collected. All so that they didn't have to walk for a few minutes sorry but that is selfish behaviour to the residents and not to mention illegal to block a road!

YANBU! The school run mum/dad/whatever is this single worst driver on the road.

Outrank ever their kind for me, White van, Audi, Boy racer etc.

Entitled, inconsiderate and very annoying.

I agree with a previous poster. Why do teenagers (barring those with special needs) have to be dropped right to the door of the school? Surely they can get out of the car at some convenient point and walk the rest of the way?

*kid not mud
Tl;dr it's not always possible to avoid driving kids to school
It is entirely possible not to act like a dick whilst doing so

Artofhappiness I drive my dc to school because
A) I live 5 miles away from them
B) DD is at school 5 miles away from where she lives
C) DS is at a school a further 2 miles away
D) both of them are autistic and up until very recently my secondary aged mud couldn't cope on public transport- he's now getting more able to use it which thankfully means I don't have to drive him so much
E) I have to be at work between 8 and 8.30 and their dad gets on a train at 7.15.
I have put my morning school run into a journey planner which showed mw that if I tried to do it on public transport it would take me approximately 3 hours.
But then I park ages away from the school and walk the rest cos I would rather not inconvenience people or have my car pranged in the general melee.