To insist DH drives us?

The main reason I started driving was because I had a child who hated public transport!! Yes the drive is no fun but a stressed out child on a packed tram is no picnic either. Completely get he is a new driver city centre driving is absolute hell but its only for 12 weeks and he isn't working that day. I think he needs to dig deep as there will be many situations in the future that will cause for stressful driving situations. At the very least every other week. You are a team. Good luck OP

Completely with your DH here. Driving in Manchester City centre is hell, and is absolutely horrendous during rush hours. And by 3.30pm rush hour has hit in now! I would refuse point blank to commit to doing that for 12 weeks. Once as an emergency maybe but not routinely. The stress and anxiety on them, as a new driver, is unfair.

Your options are:
1- Take DC out of school earlier if this is an essential appt for her benefit
2- Get a later tram and hope to make it on time (which looks possible if only a 15 min tram journey)
3- Wait for a better suited time appt to become available.

I'm sorry but you want him to do something he is not comfortable doing (driving in manchestor city area after only having his license for a year) so that you and your daughter can avoid doing something you are not comfortable doing?
I think if a new driver is not comfortable doing something their boundaries should be respected.

I would hate to drive into Manchester at that time. He's not unreasonable in not wanting to.

Would another 10 minutes out of school really make such a difference? The school chuck out time is very specific so as long as you are before it there's less of an issue.

Or is there a train or bus away from the schools?

I could be totally wrong but I suspect I know the school @Woozywoozer and it's bloody awful at a certain time! I absolutely hate it if I cross paths with the majority of the students. Feral doesn't come close. Definitely go earlier, or just later and fingers crossed you will miss them 🤞

No, because he needs to collect their DS.

He should just take her surely that's the most logical option?

So picking him up would make you late surely?

glad you have found a way that works because the car really didn’t sound a practical approach

I think YABU. I presume you don't drive? Driving in Manchester is horrible, I would never push an inexperienced driver to do that if there was an alternative?

I'd ask school to let her out a bit earlier, and/or ask him to take her on the tram. Can you take ear defenders for the noise?

To be honest, when I'd only been driving that long I wouldn't want to drive round Manchester City Centre either! I've been driving well over 20 years and I'm not a nervous driver but I do avoid city centres as it's just hell.

I'm a pretty condiment driver with 30 years' experience. I'd share a crowded tram with school kids for 20 mins rather than over an hour in city centre traffic.

It doesn't sound like DD is that distressed if she can't hear what's going on in her headphones?

Although, if that is a problem, take her out of school a bit earlier. It's not nice of the school to allow her out, you tell them what you need.

But is it 1hr round trip or 2 in total for them to get home?

I LOVE driving - I've had a license for more than 25 years, hold an HGV license, have driven in Paris, London, Tokyo and New York yet I swear I have never been as stressed as the time I accidentally found myself driving through Manchester city centre on a late Tuesday afternoon.

It's an absolute bin fire.

Is it an hour one way or round trip? Either way you would be hugely unreasonable to expect this from him, and also for your son to have to sit and be carted along, especially if the only reason for you not picking him up yourself is you're lazy.
Do you work given you're having a go at dh for his day off?

DH drives. I don't (medical reasons)

First sentence of the OP.

Sounds like you got it sorted with a later tram so that's good. I was going to say that in a situation like this, our compromise is usually that DH would drive us to a slightly different station so that we could take an earlier train or even just get on earlier before the crowds do. this works where we are (going towards London) as the train stops around here are all no more than 10 minutes apart by car.

Last two times I've driven in Manchester I've got a ticket for being in a bus lane. Not intentionally. The roads change at a day's notice and lots of the City Centre roads have closures or have been pedestrianised. I worked in Manchester for three years and always got the tram. An inexperienced driver would struggle. I'd take her out of school earlier as it's a temporary thing. It will avoid the school crush too

I've been driving for decades and hate driving in Manchester City centre. What I would do is tell the school and pull your child out an hour earlier, get an earlier train and go for a drink before she has to go in to her appointment.

Why doesn't he just take her?

Why are you going too?

YABU to ask him to drive you.
Arrange to pick DD up earlier to avoid school rush. Swap alternative weeks with him.

An inexperienced driver and busy city traffic doesn't seem like a good combination, but then if he doesn't start driving in the city how will he gain the experience? On the other hand, given that Manchester has reasonable public transport, and considering the negative environmental impact of another car clogging the streets, I think that public transport has to be the answer. Doesn't Manchester have a congestion charge yet? If not it will soon, and experience of driving in the city will, to all intents and purposes, be useless anyway!!