To make the kids walk 3miles to school?

When we didn't have a car I was so much fitter and slimmer but honestly I found everything took hours....even just a quick dash to the supermarket would take me the better part of an hour and half rather than half an hour if I had had a car

Could not afford that!

Some of the comments here… they’re 12 and 13, they’ll be fine walking that far. Kids are supposed to exercise for at least 2 hours a day

My daughter has walked 2 miles to school and 2 miles back every day since she was 11 she is now 15. Probably 1/3 of kids walk and it takes about 3/4 of an hour. It's also up hill on the way and it does rain. But we walk everywhere, so she is really used to it. Loads of kids cycle too.

We used to walk everywhere when we were kids and I certainly walked at least 3 miles to school & home every day.

Hardly walk at all now, thanks to learning to drive and working full time, so I'm much less fit. But when I get the chance I walk 5km or so round the forest nearby, and we went on a few hikes this summer.

Yes YABU to 'put your foot down' and make them walk every day.

Why the drama and the two extremes? You could just prep them that they'll have to walk some days, depending on your schedule and tne weather. You can have a happy medium.

Making them walk for an hour to school and from school, day in day out, regardless of adverse weather, just to avoid driving - unreasonable.

I LOVE walking and go for miles and miles - but being forced to pound the pavement for an hour every day at 7.30am would make me utterly miserable after a while.

That distance is not a lot for me now. I have checked on google maps and it is further than my school run back in the 70s. My parents said that it was too far for me to walk. It wasn’t out of my way for my father though.

Back to the Ops children. I suppose that you are going to keep an eye on the weather so if it is raining hard you give them a lift. They are not sugar mice, but sitting in wet clothes is not conducive to learning. I would actually be tempted to offer a lift in the morning most days (especially if they have a lot to carry) and let them walk home.

No, she “honestly” doesn’t.

we know it
she knows it

Nah. It's too much. I used to walk about a mile and a half each way to secondary school (and also a 25 min train journey) and that was knackering enough.

I used to do a job visiting clients homes and I remember the three mile walk to one of the locations. I could do it once but I had to get the bus on the way back. And I wouldn't have been able to do it at all in the rain. And this was a healthy grown adult woman!

I'd compromise and walk on the way, pick up on the way back as it's up a hill and after a long day of school. You say its only for around a month and Sept is usually pretty good weather still. Maybe in heavy rain I would drive them in the morning.
If they are fit and healthy 12/13 year old, 3 miles isn't going to harm them for a month.

Do you honestly walk 14 miles on a commute day? How long does that take you? I run 5k three times a week and do about an hour of walking as part of my commute and I feel like that's pretty unusually active!

Park your car three miles from where you work. Load yourself up with all the bags and kit that the children would need to carry. Then walk to work, regardless of the weather.

If you find this easy, then let the children walk to school.

I always work on the basis that I wouldn't ask someone to do something I'm not prepared to do myself. I used to walk/cycle three miles to work if the weather was decent, but that was along dedicated cycle/walking paths. And I wasn't loaded up with heavy bags/equipment

Can you park the otherside of the roadworks, walk to the car and drive from there?

For a month, they'll survive. If it was a long term thing, I'd say yabu.
Maybe you could compromise for the week? They walk 3 days, you drive 2?

My eldest is a keen sports person and I would absolutely encourage this walk - or more likely cycle, with the agreement that on hideously wet days they get a lift.

In my last job I regularly walked 2 miles each way for work, and would happily have done more, this was usually preceded by a run, cycle or swim. If you are fit and healthy 3 miles is not that far, yes it takes a while, but its doable. Most 12/13 year old's have a lot of energy to burn.

I didn't have a job then, but I went back to school during DS's last year so I took him on the back on my bike until he could cycle fast enough as I definitely did not have the time then! Then I passed my driving test so was able to drive him.

It was bonkers (spent nearly 5 hours a day walking including the bits I walked by myself) but I didn't have any other option and I wanted them to go to nursery. I was very fit and healthy then though, so silver linings and all

My 13 yo walked back from town yesterday carrying shopping bags - just checked and it’s 2.8 miles. There was a bus strike on. He didn’t even mention it to me until he read the paper over my shoulder about the strike and was like “oh that was why there were no buses!”. Walking 3 miles carrying bags didn’t even register to him as an event.

Op, where are the public buses in all this?

Why hasn't anyone rang the council and said this level of disruption is unacceptable and the road work people must use traffic lights like everyone else manages to?

I’m right in thinking that your kids never usually walk to school op?

I think 3 miles is quite far. I live in a country where most kids walk to school. In order to qualify for the free school bus you need to live a certain distance. I think its more than 3/4mile for preschool, 1.5 miles for primary and 2.5 miles for secondary.
Since its only for a month or so i think 3 miles is doable for them at that age if the weather isnt absolutely terrible. I didnt read all the updates, so not sure if the bike is an option. Would be the obvious solution.

Why would she when they could walk?

wow come on guys they are 12 & 13 i dunno about anyone elses kids but my 13yo will quite happily cycle/walk the other side of town n back to call for his mates, go to the skate park etc so yes if he had to do 6 mile round trip to school he can, my 10yo does 4.5 round trip to school come rain or shine as we don’t have any other option, its a month! Im sure they will live.

Have they got a group of friends who will all be walking the same way? When I was at secondary (in the dark ages), there was no bus that could conveniently get me to school (and my parents couldn't afford the fares anyway) and I and many of my friends walked 2.5 miles (uphill all the way) to secondary. We'd all call for each other on the way and a huge group of us would arrive at the school gates, and we'd all walk home together too (although it was downhill all the way back). We'd chat, muck about and it was part of our social 'school day'. This was in the days before rucksacks were allowed too, so we were carrying all our school books, plus extras (sports kit, lab coats etc) with us in carrier bags.

I look back on those walks to and from school as some of the best bits of my school life. But only because it was so social. If I had had to walk alone all the way it would have been a very different story. But then nobody's parents had cars back then and we all regarded walking as a perfectly normal way of getting about.

If there's no bus on the other side of the roadworks then of course they can walk. 🤷