To not understand why so many people drive their dc to and from secondary school?

[Dancergirl]

Surely once at secondary school dc should get themselves to and from unless it's really not possible to get there by public transport?

Someone I know - her dd has started Year 7 at a local secondary. There is an easy and convenient school bus. But she's driving her and picking up every day even though she also has younger dc at primary!

At dd1's school (she's currently Year 8), it seems lots of her friends are driven to and from. Some live locally and there are very good public transport links.

Why?? Am I missing something?

Public transport is so expensive, its not fair that it is subsisided in London for young people and nowhere else. Do Londoners pay extra council tax for this?

I think you need to think outside the box, with respect OP.

I have a child in y6 (and two younger ones including a baby) and he starts secondary this September, and I will be driving him there at least for the first year.

Reasons? Well, we'll be living in the next town which would be a bus ride away (about half an hour, generally, disregarding traffic) and then a walk of maybe 10 minutes.

1. I don't think relying on public transport is a great idea having used the bus myself to get to school on occasion as a child/teenager. They often run late and sometimes don't come at all and then you're in a panic - and he panics easily.

1. He has dyslexia and dyspraxia. Ds and a timetable do not compute. D and a watch also don't compute. He struggles with context in almost every situation and so one small thing would need to go wrong for a complete disaster to ensue.

1. I have been on school buses (25 years ago but still) and they were hellish - noisy and dangerous and filled with a strange, hostile tension that carried bullying and practical jokes and someone usually crying and someone else secretly smoking, and a lot of drama - most of it unnecessary.

People DID get trampled and their legs/arms broken at our bus station. I am sure it still happens.

I never felt safe on those buses despite the 'camaraderie' that was assumed by the parents...they were dangerous places and very uncomfortable socially and physically.

So car it is.

Never even thought of the cost - but that would be an unpleasant side effect of doing it, too.

So lose lose all round really. I hate buses especially school ones.

I am amazed at these expensive bus fares.

Free bus travel in London for dc with a zip oyster and half fare on the tube.

Rural and semi rural buses are extremely expensive.

God yes Rooney, mine have always been driven due to an expensive/convoluted journey, so they have never experienced the joy that is the school bus, but I know many people who have had terrible experiences with bullying, fighting, stealing etc on the bus to school.

Its £45 on the school bus here. DD uses the bus, but when my 2nd DC goes up it will be cheaper for me to drive them than pay £90 a month. The school buses are difficult though, there is no adult to supervise, so often issues with behaviour.

There is a public bus, but this is worse are there are children from the other rival school using it too, and so the behaviour is even worse! There is also a big difference in a 15 year old taking the bus to school, and an 11 year old just out of primary school. Ultimately we all do what works for us, that is a MN mantra, no?

If everyone stopped using their cars the roads would be less busy, buses would run to time and not get stuck it traffic.

When are you going to stop ferrying them around. They will have to use buses one day as they wont be able to afford a car. How will they develop independence before they go to uni.

Teenagers need to learn how to get up and out of the house so they will be able to do it when your not there. Just because you can do something for your child doesn't mean you should. I could keep changing nappies it would be of been easier then cleaning up puddles, but a child does need to use the loo. Changing nappies forever isn't the best for the child

I'll stop ferrying them when it doesn't cost me approximately 1/3 of the cost to drive them, thanks.

I am amazed at these expensive bus fares.

Free bus travel in London for dc with a zip oyster and half fare on the tube.

And I am amazed at how many people in London think that public transport in the rest of the country works the same was as in the capital. Free travel?? Tubes?? If only!

Buses are really expensive. I won't have to drive DC because all our local schools are within a mile or two from where we live, but if we lived in one of the outer villages, I probably wouldn't have a choice, especially with more than one. Public transport is really expensive around here.

Another ridiculous thread where people can't see beyond the end of their noses. Not everyone lives near to school - my secondary school has a catchment area of 180 square miles. We were bused in, but if my parents had worked in town they might have driven me - or sometimes I missed the bus.

Mine cycle to school, it's only 2 miles each way, but with the prices and timetable for the buses I can understand why parents drive their children. £29.50 for 28 days travel and a bus service that only runs 1 service an hour if your lucky, and this is a school that is less than 4 miles from the city centre.

Your very lucky with those fares Dancergirl.

Don't you realise that not everywhere is the same as London

There is also somewhere called the country side. The bus fare for a child, going to our nearest city, a journey of 20 minutes, cost £4.50 here. It's ridiculous as it discourages people from using public transport and encourages you to get into the car.

I think parents drive because it is the easiest/cheapest/most practical solution. DD takes the bus because for me it is the easiest/cheapest/most practical solution. We live within the catchment area, but more than 3 miles from the school, so DD gets a free bus pass.

I also wanted her to learn a bit of independence and not have to rely on me for lifts all the time.

Dd's school is literally next to my office. Why would I make her get the bus when I was driving there anyway? She does get a bus home though as I don't finish until 5.

My DS isn't very grown up in many ways (he's in Yr 8 now) but was travelling to school under his own steam from Day 1 and he has to get a bus and do a journey of about 30 - 40 minutes each way daily. He has primary school friends who would consider themselves more grown-up/cool/hard who are still driven to and from secondary school regularly (and as special journeys not en route to work ones)....

I would call it mollycoddling behaviour particularly for boys.....

In London bus/tram travel is free for secondary school pupils so there's not even additional cost to factor in..... Elsewhere if travel costs stack up quickly I can perhaps see the rationale for doing so though.....

DS1 does get the school bus - it costs us £10 a week,or £37 a month and that will double when DD starts secondary, and treble when DS2 starts in 3 years time.

If DH was passing school on his way to work, or only had to do a slight detour, then yes we would drive them in order to save that money.

So I would imagine cost is one of the factors - I have friends in London who are horrified we have to pay for kids on our public and or school transport. It never occurred to them that the rest of the country may not have the same transport policies as London.

op no one on mn uses their local secondary silly

I take my kids even though the school bus goes past the back of our house.
they both have autism and the youngest has adhd too. They are in mainstream with full time 1:1 support and wouldnt be safe unsupervised on a bus. The other option is school taxi but I feel more comfortable doing the runs myself.

We're in a village which is 3 miles off the main road down a twisty county lane with no pavement, which the locals drive up and down like a race track The main road has no pavement either, and is another 4 miles into town with traffic doing 50/60 mph. To the poster asking where we all live - Warwickshire Northamptonshire border.

There is no school bus service from our village. A child's one way ticket on the public bus into town is £1.50. That's £3.00 a day if they're doing both ways, x 5 per week = £15 per week. That's per child.

My DD leaves at 7.40am to catch the hourly public bus into town. She gets into town at 8am and walks to school and waits for it to start (yr 11), so she gets herself into school each day at a cost to me of £7.50 per week ...

BUT - i pick her up for the journey home each day because:
a) if she was to catch the bus home she would have a 45 wait at the bus stop in town for the bus home, and not be home till nearly 5pm.

and b) if i time any car journeys i need to make during the day to coinside with a half 3 ish pass through town, then i can pick her as i go through and save £1.50 every day. Which adds up to £7.50 a week - 60 quid per term ish. Not to be sneezed at.

Quite happy to use our local SEA but we didn't know where we were moving when we put in the application and now we can't change it.

There is a vg school where we're moving to but we're stuck with the ones we applied for in October. It's a crappy system.

'I would call it mollycoddling behaviour particularly for boys'

and your justification for this?

When I have 3 in secondary at once it will cost around £75 a week for the bus. I'm not paying £75 a week so they can gain independence before uni when they will have been perfectly capable of getting themselves to town/sports centre/cinema on public transport for around 6-7 years.
Surely dcs who land at uni without ever having been on public transport can simply learn how to do so within the first few days that they get there. It's not rocket science. I'd never eaten a McDonalds or used a computer when I went to uni but I soon got the hang of it.

Umm, because they want to?