Two parents taking child to school

[newmum1976]

Pointless post really, but is it a thing now for both parents to walk their child/children to school every day? I see it all the time at our school, and wonder how people find the time. Don’t remember it being a thing with my older children.

I work from 07:00 to 18:00, but the odd half an hour break for a walk is surely manageable for most working people.

WFH means neither of us want to not have a morning walk before work. It’s nice to chat to the children on the way there and together on the way home. All in all. It’s easy for us.

DH & I do all drop-offs and pick-ups together. Both WFH with fully flexible jobs so can schedule meetings etc around school time tables, and time the nursery drop-offs around the walk too. Nice to break up the day, chat to the kids etc. DH used to do them all as he's been WFH for years, I've been WFH since Covid so like to join in. See alot of couples doing it too, I think it's lovely.

H used to come with us when he was still self employed, when he got his job where his hours meant that he would be leaving the house at 6am and getting back at 7pm he made sure he came along/did on his own as many drops offs as he could because soon he wouldn't be able to do them at all! Now it's just me and H misses it

Not everyone works 9-5.
DH is SAHP so he does all the school runs. I work shifts so when I'm not at work I join him.

It’s a nice morning walk before work. We both go most days because I start work later, so I can wait for the gates to open, while my husband likes to get back in time to make a coffee before his first meeting of the day.

I can understand it when the children are at the same school. Quite nice to walk together and then walk back without the children.

Round here we have separate infant/juniors and they're quite a walk (20 minutes) apart. Parking at both was a nightmare. There was one particular family that lived in the middle between the two and they would drive down to the juniors and drop child off right outside, then have the huge fight against the traffic to get back to the infants normally a bit late. They then drove back home (he worked from home) so it wasn't as though they needed to get somewhere important quickly afterwards.
They often moaned about the traffic and how difficult it was and tried suggesting things (for other people to use-they were always clear that they would not be able to take part, but someone else should sort this out) that didn't involve driving. (that was why I noticed them particularly. If they hadn't been very vocal about how terrible it was that so many people drove then I wouldn't have noticed the irony)
But they had an obvious solution of one parent taking one child and they'd have had quite a nice 10 minute walk to each.
Odd.

Yep its people working from home who would previously have walked to the bus, train or whatever. They're getting out for some fresh before starting working day by walking to school.
Even people round me with high school kids are walking them part of the way and then doing a loop round and back home to get some fresh air before working from home.

We often do the school run together if DP is off work or on a shift that allows it. The kids like having us both there and it makes getting 3 of them out the door easier.

We sometimes do if we are both off, we did this morning as we were going our for the day, so headed off straight after drop off.

Both my girls loved it if we both did pick up! Though usually it would just be one of us while the other did a drive by because we’d probably already be running a little late through work calls and no time to faff with parking!

My husband did his share of the pick ups for our eldest and he was only 1 of 2 or 3 Dad regularly seen. With my younger daughter Dad drop off pick up a lot more of the Dads did their fair share. (6 years age difference)

I’m a single parent so do all the school runs, personally if I had someone else that could do it then I would never do it again 😂 so not something I would do personally but I don’t care what other parents do quite a few do it at my kid’s school.

Op, surely you can recognise that other people have different lives and daily routines than you?

I think due to work from home. Often we both walk to school with children and continue on for a walk before heading home to start work.
Need to get out of house before and after work helps define 'work time '

We both do pick-up for our only DD. Walking between us, holding our hands, chatting about school… it’s our favourite part of the day. We know we’re lucky to be able to do it and we know it’s time-limited. She’s eight now. We probably have two or three years…

We get that at my daughters school. They all congregate at the front gate and block it, so a lot of the kids struggle to get past. To many people. My dad never took us to school. Come to think of it nor did my mum after I was 6. We all just walked. I know it’s changed days. No one can walk the length of themselves. Hogging the roads near the school with the big gas guzzlers. Sad

If you are walking your children to school then why would the congestion on the roads matter?

Same, especially if they’re holding hands. I miss my late DH.

We used to do this as often as we could, I think it’s a lovely thing to do.

Sounds lovely. If I WFH I would go along too.

I only see a mum OR a dad.

For us, DH starts work later, so he has a lie in on weekdays and I do the school run.

Sending huge hugs... I know exactly how you feel... 😢😢

WishingWell5's PA here. She was discussing how she can't possibly fathom how anyone would have time to post let alone create a Mumsnet post. She's far too busy with other important things. So I am relaying the message to all you non-busy folk. Good day.

My partner and I both work shifts. Often a grandparent drops off/collects our daughters...if we're both off we will generally both go, I don't think it's odd to want to do the pick up or drop off if you're able...especially when ypu can't always

Performance parenting?