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AIBU?

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Original poster

AIBU to continue turning in the school gate?

488 replies

NortonBuns · 19/03/2025 14:18

I drive my dd to school everyday and once I drop her off I turn around and drive home. I approach the back gate of the school and use this entrance to turn my car round so I can head back home.
The school have now put up a sign saying keep our children safe, no stopping, dropping off or turning in the entrance.
So where am I supposed to turn around? If I carry on I reach the front gate which is busier and has the busses. If I turn before I reach the back entrance I am doing a three point turn in busy school run traffic with lots of children walking and cycling.
So AIBU to say I am safest turning in the large double gate and ignoring the new sign?

OP posts:
BotterMon · 19/03/2025 17:19

Drop off at nearest bus stop to you.

pinkyredrose · 19/03/2025 17:17

Walk to school?

Napface · 19/03/2025 17:16

A map / diagram would help. Are you saying there is no where to turn around for 2 miles past the school?

0ohLarLar · 19/03/2025 17:16

Hint op:

You do not have to drive. Somewhere in your scenario are choices you have made which are resulting in you driving.

Eg

  • you are entitled to school transport to your nearest school if over 3 miles away

So either you have chosen a school too far from home (your problem) or chosen a private school (also your problem).

You may now have to make different arrangements that are less convenient for you or your DC. No, the rules can't be bent to accommodate your sense of entitlement.

Tiswa · 19/03/2025 17:14

There must be roads off of this very long straight road. DS gets driven and we drop him off on a side street and he walks the last bit (as so many others)

babiesinthesnowflakes · 19/03/2025 17:14

NortonBuns · 19/03/2025 17:10

@LadyBracknellsHandbagg well none of the solutions people have come up with are safer.
Then end of the 2 miles away road is a very busy crossroad where it would not be safe to stop.
I can’t carry on to do a loop as I would then hit the full front of school traffic and children walking and cycling to school.
This is a high school by the way and we live very rurally so I am not unusual for having to drive.
There is literally a long queue of other parents waiting to turn at this point. The children have a fenced off walk way which leads to a zebra crossing so are not in danger.

I think we need a diagram, or even better a screenshot on Google maps.

I’ve never seen a school located as you describe. It sounds like Los Angeles. Are you in the UK?

Sirzy · 19/03/2025 17:14

School have been very clear they want people to stop this. It isn’t safe for the children.

It’s up to you to now find a safer alternative. Can you pull up further away and your children walk in?

0ohLarLar · 19/03/2025 17:13

Why isn't your local council providing school transport? Even if you live "very rurally" school transport is provided if you live more than 3 miles away.

Why can't your DC use that?

Penguinmouse · 19/03/2025 17:13

Yes, you are so obviously unreasonable. Firstly, I don’t know why you should be allowed but no other parent would be. Schools are also private property so they can tell you whether you can stop there.

Not even two years ago, a car ploughed through a school entrance and killed two children. Schools trying to mitigate it and you think you’re above the rules. Drop your child off elsewhere, make them walk, make them get the bus. Figure it out.

Growlybear83 · 19/03/2025 17:11

In the 14 years that my daughter was at school, I drove her, for various reasons, for 10 of those years. During that time, at three different schools, there was never a single occasion when I needed to stop on the zig zags, across the gate, or turn into a school entrance, despite living in a busy suburb of south London with fairly heavy traffic and little on street parking close to the schools. I always made sure that we arrived early enough to find a legal parking space, sometimes several minutes walk from the school, and when I had dropped my daughter off or picked her up, we drove round whatever route was necessary to get back home without turning in anyone’s drive, let alone the school.

The only time I have ever blocked a a school’s zig zags or entrance was when I was part of a group of parents who put out traffic cones every morning and afternoon at my daughter’s first school to stop lazy ignorant parents like you from endangering the other children by stopping and manoeuvring where they shouldn’t. The fact that other parents do this is irrelevant and doesn’t give you the right to do the same.

Original poster
NortonBuns · 19/03/2025 17:10

@LadyBracknellsHandbagg well none of the solutions people have come up with are safer.
Then end of the 2 miles away road is a very busy crossroad where it would not be safe to stop.
I can’t carry on to do a loop as I would then hit the full front of school traffic and children walking and cycling to school.
This is a high school by the way and we live very rurally so I am not unusual for having to drive.
There is literally a long queue of other parents waiting to turn at this point. The children have a fenced off walk way which leads to a zebra crossing so are not in danger.

OP posts:
Matsukaze · 19/03/2025 17:06

How about a helicopter? Could just parachute DD in at drop off and winch her back up at pick up.

Quinlan · 19/03/2025 17:06

If you’re 6 miles from school then your child would be entitled to school transport; a taxi or a bus. So she should be in that, car pooling, instead of you driving her, adding to the congestion and causing a hazard at the school.

TiredArse · 19/03/2025 17:05

Is this a reverse?

Bumblebeestiltskin · 19/03/2025 17:04

NortonBuns · 19/03/2025 16:55

Live 6 miles away, must be lovely to live so near your school.

Show quote history

OK this is definitely a piss take 😂

LadyBracknellsHandbagg · 19/03/2025 17:04

NortonBuns · 19/03/2025 16:51

Ok so to answer some of your questions;

All the other parents do this, it is literally a queue of cars waiting to turn around to avoid carrying on towards the main school gate where busses are dropping off.

The school is about two miles up a straight road full of high school children walking and cycling to the school. No side roads to drop off or turn around.

I really am a very considerate driver, would never block drives, stop on yellow lines or zebra crossings. I just don’t know what the safe alternative is.

I don’t know why you posted on AIBU, everyone has told you that you are, yet you still won’t accept it!
Maybe post on a thread entitled ‘Please tell me what I want to hear’.

Just because ‘all the other parents do this’ (which they clearly don’t) doesn’t make it right. Would you be understanding if one of these other parents hit your child with their car? I think not.

Original poster
NortonBuns · 19/03/2025 17:04

tanstaafl · 19/03/2025 15:46

Drive through the gates and use the playground to turn around?

Kids these days can’t be too young to learn about road safety.

Wear some hi-viz and have your hazards on, no one will bat an eyelid.

I could actually drive in as it is a through road to other businesses.

OP posts:
0ohLarLar · 19/03/2025 17:03

Op if the nearest state primary is 6 miles away from your home your DC should be entitled to school transport so you should not need to drive.

If you chose a school 6 miles away that is private/not your closest school and doesn't have suitable parking within walking distance, more fool you. The world doesn't revolve around you. Primary schools are generally set up on the basis that most people can walk or cycle there.

sandyhappypeople · 19/03/2025 17:01

NortonBuns · 19/03/2025 16:51

Ok so to answer some of your questions;

All the other parents do this, it is literally a queue of cars waiting to turn around to avoid carrying on towards the main school gate where busses are dropping off.

The school is about two miles up a straight road full of high school children walking and cycling to the school. No side roads to drop off or turn around.

I really am a very considerate driver, would never block drives, stop on yellow lines or zebra crossings. I just don’t know what the safe alternative is.

So you could carry on to the end of the road and take a circular route home?

It's just further out of your way then turning around and going back?

grumpypedestrian · 19/03/2025 17:00

Other kids can walk and cycle a two mile road, but yours can’t? My Y7 walks 1.5miles each way to school.

Original poster
NortonBuns · 19/03/2025 17:00

Tessasanderson · 19/03/2025 15:17

You ignorant so and so. You stop somewhere, walk your child to school then you walk back to your car (If you have to even drive). What kind of person comes on MN and asks if she should ignore a school telling you not to turn/park/drive somewhere.

I’d still need to turn my car around to go back home.

OP posts:
JohnTheRevelator · 19/03/2025 16:59

Over-entitlement at its finest. 😂

MontanaPink · 19/03/2025 16:59

6 miles is obviously too far to walk. Our local school has an agreement with a nearby carpark - free for parents to use at school drop off and pick up times. Do your school have a similar thing?

Quinlan · 19/03/2025 16:58

So the school is down a 2 mile dead end? You can’t drive past it?
You can’t drop your daughter and just drive past? Then drop her at the end of the 2 mile road and she can walk that, as you say it is full of kids walking and cycling.

Nowvoyager99 · 19/03/2025 16:58

So why can’t you drop off along the final half mile of this straight road?

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