To wonder why so few parents walk their kids to and from school these days?

[JellyDiamonds]

This evening I had to quickly pop into town and my route takes me down a side street where there's a large old Victorian primary school with a smallish car park that's for teachers only. It was 3.15, and despite the fact that it was absolutely glorious, warm and sunny, I couldn't get over just how many parents had driven to collect their kids from the school.

It was absolute chaos, cars double parked, parked on corners, parked at strange angles, blocking entrances to a business and even blocking the entrance to the school itself. I felt so sorry for the people who live there, most of the houses are terraces with no off street parking at all. It made me think, I was rarely picked up or dropped off by car. I always walked, even in the rain. When I got to secondary school I got the bus as it was further away. The only time my parents even picked me up by car was if we were going somewhere straight from school, which was so rare.

Surely most children live within walking distance of their primary school? And on a gorgeous late summers evening there is surely no excuse for such laziness? We have all legs don't we? Why don't we use them more often? I don't understand it...

Pfft. We can't get Dd into our local school so there is no option but driving. No bus and no pavement for most of the route. So I have to fight my way through the local school parking horror to get to dd's school parking horror.

I don't park illegally though. Some of the parking and driving is shocking.

We would love to walk more often but four days out of five we need to be in the car to drive my youngest on to his preschool/grandparents (both five mins drive away).

I am looking fwd to when he starts school too then we can all walk everyday.

I walk to collect DS from school everyday I quite enjoy it, its a 15 minute walk there however when the weathers awful I am slightly envious of the people driving to collect their children (dh has the car at work)
I don't judge people that don't walk however I will judge those that park on street corners/stop in the middle of the road/go too fast past the school when leaving etc as when I'm attempting to cross the road with ds2 in his pram I can't as cars are parked right outside the school, across the corners of the streets theres nowhere safe to cross and that really annoys me, especially as young children are everywhere and it isn't safe at all swell as numerous reminders from the school some people continue to do it.

I walked my kids to school right up until the moment I got a job (we live 10 minutes away). Now we drive cause I don't have the extra 15min (10 to walk back home again and 5 to retrace my steps in the car) between dropping them at school and getting to work.

I collect them from afterschool club in the car because, guess what, I'm coming from work, it's late and we need to get home quickly so I can get their dinner on.

It's not rocket science.

There are a handful of parents I know of who always drive their kids to our school, when they could walk and don't have to be anywhere, but I've noticed that the proportion of kids walking to school has increased, more recently. I did used to roll my eyes at a parent who lives across the road from the far end of the school field, who used to drive her DC around the corner to the school, but most people I know to speak to do have good reason eg going to work, taking the kids somewhere after school, grandparent doing the school run who can't cope with the hilly walk on uneven pavements, child with behavioural issues who can't walk safely, who also has younger siblings, so mother's hands are full, child with anxiety around school who is difficult enough to get out of the door, some mornings, without a walk to face....

I don't drive. Used to live in a city with good public transport links and didn't need to. Why would I sit in a traffic jam then pay a fortune to park when I could pay a quid each way for someone else to negotiate that traffic jam then not need to worry about parking?

It would be useful if I could drive, where I live, but health, neurological and confidence issues make me hesitant about taking lessons. It also wouldn't help with the school run, as DS2 needs 2 adults in the car with him, much of the time, as he has SN and is a bit of an escapologist.

Gridlock twice a day around the part of our village where the secondary school is. People are driving their perfectly able-bodied teenagers (TEENAGERS) right to the fucking door of the school. It makes me . The kids all look bloody gormless in the cars as well, like it would never even occur to them to walk the 100 metres it would take if their parents dropped them off in the place that would avoid the gridlock.

We walked in all weather all through our school years. Our school was a good half hour walk away.

Mum walked with during primary but we walked ourselves middle and secondary.

If we had extra curricular we'd walk home after that had finished too.

Agree, things are different now. More clubs and stuff available to more people, more parents needing/wanting to work full time.

Mine will have to walk/bus as I don't drive and DP works long and irregular hours.

Should have said that if we can get Dd into the local school, not only would we walk every day, we might even be able to go down to one car.

I read an article back a year or so ago (I think about america, don't remember) that this generation of children is twice as likely to be driven to school than my generation (30 years back). i think the numbers were 30 vs 60%. they (health researchers) think this is contributing to the obesity problem in both parents and children.

while the tone of the OP is a bit judgemental, the question applies more broadly than school drop off/pick ups. we all know that people now drive distances that were once thought well within walking distance.

Oh but duchesse, all of those teenagers must have mobility issues of some sort or other. How dare you judge them....

Mumsnet does have this rather curious attitude to asking questions like the OPs'. Of course, a particular individual may have particular reasons why they drive, but it is a reasonable question to ask why in general lots more people drive these days.

I drive when I am going on to work afterwards. But there is one parent, who lives about 400m from the school, who drives their kids there. When walking back home we often see them driving back to the house. And there aren't mobility issues with him or his children, I see him going for runs quite often. It is also noticeable how much busier it is with cars when it is raining a bit. Children don't melt y'know.

So I sort of agree with the OP in that yes lots of people are lazy, and see the car as default transport, which I don't think is a good example to children. But there are many reasons why individual people may choose to drive. Judging individuals is wrong, but looking at and trying to understand trends is not.

I am cringing at the last para in your OP, didn't you think this through?

As others have said there are loads of reasons this happens, and amongst the many cars that end up at school only a small percentage are there because the parents are just plain lazy.

I usually park and walk because it's too far and would take too long to walk the whole way, but the other morning the road I usually park in was closed, I tried to find an alternative but ran out of time, then had to drop them off in a drive by to avoid being late. So that morning I was one of those lazy arses you speak of, except I wasn't.

We walk to and from school 99.9% of the time. It's a lovely walk by the beach and sometimes the fifteen minute walk can take two hours (homework allowing).

This week however I have been very ill and as my husband is working away I've done all of the morning school runs in the car. And although we've walked in the afternoons I've really wished I hadn't.

If DD were a little older she could take herself but just now she is the only one who walks our route and she isn't confident to do it by herself. She also sometimes has a lot of things to carry.

There are many reasons why parents drive to school and I know we are fortunate that we don't have to.

'not related but does anyone else sort of snigger when they hear a grown adult profess they 'don't drive'?

No. The few adults I know who fall into that category are Green Party types who have made the choice for environmental reasons. I don't think its a realistic option for most people but I respect them for trying. Our current levels of car usage aren't remotely sustainable. Anyway, shouldn't we be grateful to them for making the roads a little less congested for the rest of us.

Anything goes if it makes life easier in our house!

Loads of reasons, laziness is one. Why is laziness not a valid reason? I do loads of things the easiest way because I'm a bit lazy. I use a dishwasher and an electric whisk and a gas boiler and all sorts of gadgetry. I use a remote control. I drive to school because it's 2.5 miles away down a 50 mph road with no pavement and I need to get to work but I wouldn't walk the 10 mile round trip even if it was down a footpath of pillows.

You will generally find that even if someone is 'just a mum' then their time is still precious, even if only to themselves.

Also, you have no imagination if this is a genuine question.

I think some of it is down to being lazy we rely on our cars too much and many of us could walk more than we actually do choose to

we have to drive now but walked the 15min before we moved. but I could leave a few minutes earlier park a few streets away and walk but I forget and then cba because although I am rushing like many of us are about I can be lazy about walking too like I think many are

I walk my children to school & back. I'm in my 30s & I was driven to school as both my parents worked. I think they were ahead of their time & I'm very retro

Anyway, shouldn't we be grateful to them for making the roads a little less congested for the rest of us.

yes you should. You are welcome.

The other thing though is cost. DP has a license and we owned a car not to long ago, but rarely used it (about once or twice a month). parking the damn thing cost about as much as insurance. we felt like we didn't use the car enough to justify the cost.

Round here it definitely isn't just 'a handful' who drive, or a 'small percentage' it is a large percentage that are just plain lazy, then there are those that sometimes walk but use the car if there is a tiniest drop of rain because they don't want their darlings catching a chill. I know many parents that don't work and spend their lives on facebook or drinking coffee in each other's living rooms, live 10 minutes' walk away and still drive to school. It's a free country, but I just don't get it at all.

DS lives close enough to the school that he can walk himself home. I sit at home and wait for him with a coffee usually. No car needed (was the reason we bought our current home).

I repeat.
OP why didn't YOU walk into town?
Has the OP ever come back? Or did she just post her vexatious littlle stick into the wasps nest and stand back and snigger

I suspect a lot of teenagers are driven to school because they have so much stuff to carry. I left school 20 years ago and when I was at school there were only a tiny handful of people walked. My mum couldn't drive, and my dad was at work, so I often walked. But in GCSE year I could easily have needed to carry 4 different lever arch files (which didn't fit in a school bag) because of homework and timetable, and a violin, and a games kit, and a hockey stick, all on one day. I lived almost three miles from school, it was physically impossible to carry that lot, so on that day of the week we had to rely on a friend's mum to take me. Our uniform specified a particular type of schoolbag (cross body, not a rucksack) which didn't help. Lever arch files were compulsory too, the wee A4 ones weren't allowed. If it had rained on our homework on the way to school and we handed it in soggy there would have been hell to pay. No wonder teenagers want taken to school by car.

Another poster here who has to drive to school as I go straight to work after, I wish I could walk or cycle but I work in the next city. Most parents I know work now.