To think that 14 miles in a car to school is ok?

[VeryTiredMummyOf2]

It seems a long way, but that's where the school is?

Any thoughts?

Seeker - prepare to be amazed! We had pupils travelling 40+ miles on single track roads until recently some left home at 6.45 for a half hour drive to the nearest bus stop. Pupils still travel 30+ for High School. Mine travelled 18 miles to primary school until we moved house. We don't all live in the busy places. I also teach pupils who arrive by boat and board during the week (school hostel) and are 3 hours by boat from home. This is in the UK. None of these are travelling because of choosing a different catchment area, these are our local schools. On the positive side classes are tiny and the education is excellent.

I do an 11 mile each way trip to the DCs school. It's in a rural area but I do pass two other schools on the way . The reasons are slightly more complicated than just travelling for a better school, but the quality of the school is definitely one of the factors.

It takes me 17 minutes each way. We leave at 8.15 and arrive with plenty of time to gossip socialise in the playground before school.

The journey time isn't an issue - it's no longer than most of the families who walk to school take. We get chance to chat in the car, catch up on school reading and spellings, etc.

The downsides are 1) the kids don't walk to school so I have to make sure they get plenty of other exercise during the week. 2) the ever increasing cost of petrol 3) the DC can't share e.g. lifts to after school activities as we live well out of the village wher the vast majoirty of the school children live.

Well if there's no alternative then what can you do? But if there is, then I'd think carefully about the environmental issues and also the reality of having to get your child there and back if you're going to be driving. It would pretty much negate any chance of working or having your own life outside the school run. Also I imagine it could put quite a damper on your child's social life when they're older

Rose, you are obviously even more rural Scotland than me!

It's a private junior school, as all the state school around where we live are failing. It would take me 30 mins am to get there and 40 to get back in rush hour, i work 2 days a week, and the school is 10 mins drive from work in a city centre location. Hopefully in 2 yrs I will be working 4 days a week. So it won't seem that bad?

If it's your closest school, fine. If there's anything closer that doesn't have serial killers as teachers, YABU. Too much time spent on travel and no close-by friends.

DD has been doing more than that since y3 and will do about that from September when she moves to secondary. IME (as a child doing that journey and now as a parent)it's very much easier by car than bus, even a dedicated school service. I'm from a very rural area so it doesn't seem odd to me, DH is from the SE so really can't get his head around it-which makes life interesting at times.

Oldmum - think Harry Potter meets Local Hero!

It's normal round here too. Until DD2's school started doing a school minibus service from the nearest towns (read village for anywhere else in the UK) I was regularly doing 100 miles a day on the school run for both DDs. If one of them forgot anything, or was sent home sick, that incurred another huge round trip.

DD2 tried the local bus, the journey was over an hour each way, the bus in the evening didn't leave until ages after school and it just cut into her evening too much. Homework done on the bus is substandard, to say the least.

It's doable, but you do have to decide if you can afford the time and the petrol. For us it was worth it, as the alternative was not an option.

Once you are used to doing it, it just becomes part of the daily routine - car time can be useful chatting time, discussing school/social stuff, doing rote spelling/timees tables etc, it needn't be wasted time, if you feel it's important they go to that school. Long day though - if they are young, snack/dvd in car? 40min in traffic no fun for little DC's Could be some relaxation time for them that way.

Rose

I think its to far , and none od your childrens school friends will be local

My ds's Secondary school is 30 miles away. He gets the school bus at 7.40 every morning and get's home at about 4.30 pm.
This is the rural Highlands, it's the only school, and there are some that travel further.

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I did this as a teenager - 15 miles via train & bus or two buses (no chance of a lift, my Mother's journey was even longer in the opposite direction). It meant I went to a much better school than the nearest one but the major downside as a teenager is the restriction on your social life and out of school activities. And it was knackering.

USUALSUSPECT - there are plenty of ways to meet friends outside of school, local BB's and other groups, or just playing in the local park, so that need not be an issue.

Well it would be an issue for me tbh.

It's certainly some distance but maybe people are sorted about car rotas. I wouldn't do it every day. 56 miles a day? No. Not for me.

Rose and oldmum, nice to see there are others in the middle of nowhere.
And I still bet we're all many miles from each other, the Highlands are so huge but so underpopulated

If its your nearest school then fair enough.

LADYB, I think there are quite a few of us rural types on here! Tho' I do live quite near Scotland's 4th city so not really "Highlands" :)

I grew up in a small town, and had to travel 12 miles each way every day to/from School. It wasn't the nearest School, but the nearest School in my LA. (My town was near the border, IYSWIM) This is still the case, 20 years later, and all the kids from that town still travel to my old School. You cope - and as all the kids from my town did the journey, your friends were all in the same boat.....

Is there any chance of carpooling with other parents?

I don't think a journey that long is a problem per se - used to take me 45 mins each way to get to school, primary and secondary. However we had a car pool and later a school bus.

Doing that journey all by yourself with no carpool will eat up a LOT of your life...

True Usual.
Ds's school is the nearest, just a normal High School. If I lived in a city I wouldn't have him travelling these miles.
Advantages are it keeps him out of trouble, there's no 'centre' to hang out in.
Disadvantages, he would love a 'centre' to hang out in..