To think that if school comes out at 3pm....

[Sparklingbrook]

There is no need to get to the school in the car at 2pm? Just driven past the school, there are parents there already.
That's five hours a week-waiting.

I walk 15 minutes to school
Woman who lives few doors down drives every single day come rain or shine
I see her come home too, she's not straight off to work before anyone asks

The judging is largely down to where the cars are parked Never.

We don't have parking in front of the school, but we do have a turning circle where children can be dropped off in the morning - it actually works really well. After school is a different matter - the children getting lifts home are escorted to the turning circle and the released one by one when their parent's car reaches the head of the queue. It takes forever, and every day, without fail, there is a long queue of traffic stretching out of the turning circle.

There are ample places to park around the school though, all necessitating no more than a five minute walk - but no, some parents would rather sit and wait, and wait, and wait, and then inch forward in the queue so that they don't have to get out of their car and their child don't have to walk more than a few feet

Sir that must drive everyone mad.

I forgot to say that the school in question in my OP-the youngest children are 9. We aren't talking about getting out and waiting for 4 year olds here.The children are let out without any checks parents are there-to walk/cycle get home however.

I wonder if there is a peak in MNetting between 2 and 3.30?
All those mums sitting in the cars AIBUing about the school play.

mrs premise, surely if you live 10 miles away from your dcs school, the Local Authority provides transport to/from school? We live 5 miles from our Dc's school and the only time I ever drive there is when lazy Ds1 misses the school bus. And even then I usually make him cycle instead.
I seriously can't imagine any circumstances in which sitting in a car for 1 hour is preferable to walking to school or, if you have to drive, getting there at the right time, parking further away and walking for 5 minutes.

YABU. You don't know why they are waiting so early.

I used to wait for ds1 for nearly an hour, when ds2 was only 2 and in the local preschool.

DS2 finished preschool at 2:15 (ds1 due out of school at 3.20). Without fail, ds2 would always nap almost immediately (within 2 minutes of being in the car). So I could either drive home after picking him up, which was 5 minutes drive, wake him up to go inside and deal with a screaming tired toddler until bedtime...or, I could leave him sleep in his carseat, drive straight to ds1's school (again, 5 minute drive) and let him have an hours nap. After an hour, I would then be able to wake him easily to go and pick up ds1.

I got into the habit of taking my kindle and a drink with me. I used to enjoy that hour of peace sitting in the car outside school while ds2 slept

Yanbu it really annoys me especially keeping the engine running. These are the same parents that arrived to the Xmas play, harvest assembly etc. 30 mins early so they can get the front seats

I live near a school and its the same people every day who get there early. Most are SAHMs with younger children and some dont live very far from the school. its like a competition to get closest to the gates and anyone walking risks getting run over in their rush to get the best space. Rude and lazy>

I have done this on occasion (a long time ago ago as my kids are at Uni now )
Their school was in town about 30 minutes away. My favourite spin class finished about an hour before they finished school. I usually tried to arrange to do some shopping or meet up with a friend but I would often just sit in the car with a coffee and make phone calls or read the paper. I used to save up my phone calls. I quite enjoyed the lull before the storm. kids

If I was doing this now I would take my IPad and Mumsnet.

Actually I can see the benefit of a quiet hour in the car,

Judge me all you like. I like sitting in my car for an hour listening to the archers and then the afternoon play while on my iPad. That hours peace before the madness starts again is important for me.

It must be really cold in this weather to sit in the car for an hour.

I live 10 miles from DS1 and DDs school, they finish at 3.15. I work in the same town as the school. DS2 goes to a nursery just outside the town. When I finish work at 2pm it does not make sense to drive 10 miles home and 10 miles back again. I'd rather sit in my car and read mumsnet on my phone.

I only do drop off and pick-up once a week because I'm working the other days. I sometimes get there stupidly early on that day. If I'm going there straight from home, I'll generally be there bang on time, but if I have to go anywhere in the other direction first, there is a road which can be completely clear or backed up for a couple of miles, and there is no way of predicting which it is.

If I give myself enough time to allow for traffic, and then get a clear run, I'll probably be at the school by 2.30 for a 3.10 pick-up. There's nowhere to go so I sit in the car and do a bit of work.

I'll probably also take one of the nearest spaces, because they're free and it's a bit daft not to. But there are no resident parking issues around our school because everyone has drives which fit 2 cars. None of the residents park on the road at all.

A whole hour?! When I think what I could do with an hour...
(Mumsnet, probs)

MrsAMerrick - fortunately you don't need to use your imagination, you can just read the thread and you will see plenty of good reasons for ending up at school early for pickups

It's the sort of school where any pupils that live a long way away come by bus, so I doubt distance is a reason.

I won't even go there about the fucker person who beeped at me for not walking to my house quick enough across my car park so they could park in my private paid for space

I would have stopped dead, stared her straight in the eye and plonked by backside down in the parking space.....Bloody cheeky mare!!

I work 15 miles from home. The children go to a school that is in the town I work in. This is because I work in a different county to the one we live in and the school holidays can be a week or so apart.

I work until 12. I usually have lunch at work and then get my marking and prep done.
Some days I can be in the school car park at 2.00pm when school lets out at 3.15pm. Some days - if I'm training for the Moonwalk - I get there even earlier and go and do my training walk. I normally get there at 2.30pm. I tend to take my crochet and sit and look crafty.
I don't leave the engine running though and if it is really cold I scoot off to the cafe in the park and have a hot chocolate.
I quite like the peace........

There's a primary school in our road. The school has it's own big car park but no-one will use it because it's on a busy A road which forces you into traffic lights and then through town.

As a consequence the parents all try to park in our street which is narrow and crowded with residents cars. I swear some parents drop off in the morning and then stay there all day in order to save their space .

What I want to know is why does no-one come early for the morning drop off? Parking situation is exactly the same, but they're not sitting there from 8am.

The Earlies probably ARE doing MN on their smartphones.
I try to time my arrival for 5 minutes after the bell rang. Takes that long for DC to come out, anyway.

I fucking hate car park wars. It REALLY brings out the twattishness in people. Especially those who insist on driving and live within a mile! Bloody lazy. And there are SO many of them!

Anyway I can't wait for the day where I tell my children I'll meet them in another spot 500 yards up the road.

Our school road exits out at a T junction onto a very busy main road- no traffic lights. If you get stuck in the school traffic trying to get out you'll be lucky if you are there for less than 20 minutes I you haven't snagged one of the prime parking places near the T.

Once a week I need to collect DD from school and then head straight off to collect DS from his school 15 miles away. If I can park close to the T it takes me 35 minutes and I'm just on time for him. If I get stuck trying to get out I'm very late. I happily get to school on that day 30 minutes early and read the paper in the car. I couldn't care less what anyone thinks.