To think teenagers can walk 0.9miles home from school without requiring a lift?

[theredhen]

Half of the walk is a straight single track road with no pavement or street lights. About 8 cars per hour.

Kids are all mid teens.

It's not raining/snowing or dark.

Aha!

YANBU

Are they your children or your stepchildren?

My 12 year old has been doing similar since she started high school. As did her older brother and sister before her (though they had left high school when she started). About a third of a mile along a country lane and then over a mile the rest of the way.

You are happy for your 12 yo girl to walk by herself along a quiet country lane?

Not entirely. It's not exactly a country lane either, we're on the edge of the city and it's the quickest way to get from this estate to the main road. There's cottages on one side from halfway down and it's access only for traffic. Most of the kids who go to that school walk the same way.

It's either that or two buses, which take longer to get to school.

My children frequently walk a mile home across a field path from the station, and have done since they were about 10/11ish. I don't let thm go on the road because it is windy and very dangerous.

pixiepotter you ask if the OP is talking about children or step children. Are step children better or worse than walking than other children? Just wondered what difference it made? Or were you just curious?

Mine can do it in theory but they melt if it rains.

Petal you may have something there .

Difference is when it's your own DCs and you say 'No, you can walk' then that is 'tough love' teaching them independence and so on and so forth.
When you suggest a Disney Dad takes the same stance or worse still refuse to take over dads taxi service when he is otherwise engaged then that is being deliberately awkward and mean and obviously because 'you don't like them/him/her , do you !'

HTHs

Me , bitter ?

But to be fair, picking them up or driving them less than a mile isn't going to take up much time-I think we need more info!

Picking them up or driving them isn't going to take much time - but having to (or going out of the way to be) be available at the time might be a different matter.
Between DH and myself we have a FT job, two PT jobs, one of us in school, a preschooler and two older teens. Oh and a dog who needs walking twice a day. Dropping what I'm working on, or having DH drop what he's working on, to waste petrol on a short trip is impractical. Having to organise the day so that the driving parent is at home at the (often varying) time the ride is desired - that is infuriating.

DH has stopped doing it, but he used to, mostly because he found it easier to give in to whining and moaning than to point out the obvious.

maybe their dad just want's to do something kind for his children? How disgraceful!!
Seriously Op what problem is it to you? And are they your DC or stepchildren?

The school bus used to drop mine off in the main village 1 mile away and then they would walk to our hamlet....they didn't melt in the rain but their feet did get wet! Very rural area, no street lights or pavements. All the local kids did this.

In answer to what problem is it to me;

1. Kids don't develop a sense of independence, they don't have the opportunities to spontaneously visit friends or the shops or simply to stand and chat with their friends for a few minutes.

1. None of the kids are sporty, so the walk is the only exercise the kids get.

1. We agreed the plans for walking / not walking as a family. Dp is undermining our family discussion and sending messages to me and the kids that he doesn't mean what he says. This has a knock in effect in other areas. We agreed on a plan that was "kind and fair" for everyone.

1. It creates a sense of entitlement in the kids. They expect a chauffeur for every journey everywhere including all weekend events etc.

1. When dp isn't available to pick up / drop off, the kids naturally expect me to do the same as dp. If I don't do it, the the kids see me as the "bad guy" which causes arguments and discord.

If there's a wide grass verge they can go on I'd say it was fine.

I used to be up for walking anywhere until encountering some scary roads on IoW with huge ditches on each side and nowhere else to go, but this sounds different.