Why do people drive their kids to school??

[brightonbaker]

Every day My oldest DD 11 walks to school, she is at secondary school and it is about 8minutes walk away. There is one road to cross. I walk my younger DD 8 to school, her school is the same distance. I then get home and go to work, I'm lucky I can start at 9:30.
I think it is good for them to walk to school as it is a good start to the day, exercise, fresh air etc.
I have two neighbours with older DDs about 13 and 14 who I am quite sure have never walked to school, ever. So they leave about the same time as us and get back about the same time as its only 8 minutes walk and by the time they have found somewhere to park** illegally it takes the same amount of time. So why? Why are they doing this? one of the parents does not work so no need to rush and I'm not sure what the other one does.
Really gets on my nerves so thought I'd see if there are some legitimate reasons why people drive to a very local school ?

whoops!

My local school(secondary and primary next door) are 2 miles down the road and there is no pavement at all. And i take them to school on the way to work.

I see parent dropping kids off in one school then driving a few meters to drop of the others...... seriously. Fucking walk!

Mollybloom I wish there was a Like button for your post. The lazy moo round the corner to me drives her DC to school less than half a mile away, then drives herself home. No disability issues in any of the family, I know that as a fact.

Our nearest school (which is the one the dc go to) is around 40 minute walk away. I could shove him out of the door to walk at 8:00, but I'd feel awfully mean waving cheerily to him as I pass on the way to work about the time he goes through the gate. He often walks home though.

Lazy parents breeding lazy kids. Sad really.

Our school (less than a mile catchment round) banned cars - so a lot of people park in a neighbouring road - my road - and then walk children over. There is a main road but has proper signalled crossing also zebra crossing. as they drive past my house to park, I can see that their cars (on mildly cold mornings) haven't even warmed up enough on their obviously very short driving journey!!! The parents I see driving are not parents who go on to work...why can't they bloody walk or cycle their children to school!

Mine walk the mile to school every day unless one of them has broken a limb. Like now.

I was walking past DS's school the other day and there were about 100 bikes parked outside. It gave me a warm glow to see.

Of course as soon as the snow starts there will be no bikes there for approx 6 months, and you won't be able to drive past the school at drop-off time because of all the cars waiting. But considering one of the two roads to school has no pavements and is frankly a deathtrap in winter, I can't really blame them.

I think some people just have a really skewed idea of how long things take to do / how busy they are. My mum, who doesn't work, drives 0.3 miles (5 min walk) to local shop to pick something up whereas I wouldn't dream of driving such a short distance to pick a few things up. She then bangs on about how having a dog is great because it needs walks and keeps you fit...

We have a 20 minute walk, followed by another 20 mins for me to walk from school to work. If it rains hard I drive; I hate sitting in wet shoes, socks and trousers all day and there aren't proper radiators at work to hang wet things on.

We regularly pass at least 3 families on our walk who live closer than we do who drive to school, then drive home again. I often wonder why they are so lazy but none of us knows what is going on in someone else's life. I used to get tutted at for driving DS3 to secondary school. I was actually driving to work, and he walked from there to school.

When DD first started school I drove her every day. I expect people thought I was being lazy. What they didn't know was that I was having chemotherapy and didn't have the energy to even walk to the bottom of our road. It took almost 2 years before I was strong enough to walk all the way to school and back again.

Although I roll my eyes at the people who drive for ting trips (one literally a 2 minute walk to School yet they drive? If I have to drive I actually park just down the side of their house!) the ones I save my anger for are the ones who don’t apply any common sense in their mission to park as close to the gate as possible, or the ones that think driving at pedestrians on the pavement is acceptable in order to be able to park blocking the path!

Wish we could walk. Getting 3 children into car on a schedule without some form of hysterical screaming fit from one of us seems near impossible. Unfortunately we are 2 miles away all down a winding 60mph country A road with no pavements. I wish there were footpaths across the fields in summer though.

My daughter is 3 and attends a pre school at a local junior and infant school. We live 12 min walk away and we walk To school as all downhill. When she finishes for the day I pick her up by car as it's all uphill/very steep (we live in Yorkshire) to our home and she can't walk it and asks me to carry her but I she is too heavy to carry for long. I wish I could walk back with her but not sure how to get round it.

naomi can you park further and further up the road overtime? (If the layout allows?) so start with a 2-3 min walk then when she is ok with that a 5 Min walk etc

dan you've given me the face whilst answering a question I didn't ask. You said To repeat AGAIN the OP did NOT mean people who had good reason to drive, of course not. and I asked But how do you know who that is?
I didn't ask about your friends.

People pamper their kids nowadays.

When I went to school it was closest one and walk! From the age of about 7. Mainly because there was only one car in the family!

We can't walk to DS's school as the route is sround 3.5 miles over fields. He does, however, walk himself to the bus-stop which is about 10 minutes each way.

People that live too far away to walk could park a short distance from the school and walk part way. There's no need to try and park 5mm from the school gate.

This also winds me up. I understand some people live further away, have to work or have disabilities, but some parents who i know dont work, and live closer to the school drive everyday. Not only does is drive me mad, its down right dangerous when parents who drive are parking on the pavement and kids are riding their bikes to school. We sometimes now eveb have traffic wardebs outside ny kids school because of the illegal parking, and not to mention the amount of crahses when parents are lokking at the road and more at a space to park and drive right into another vehicle. Kids should have the chance to stretch their legs and get a bit of fresh air to wake then up before school. Some of the oarents are down right irresponsible.

I drive to pick up my DSD for two reasons. Firstly because I come straight from work and secondly (and most importantly) despite us having her half the time, her mum is still her main carer and so she goes to school near her mum's house. 9 miles away from us.

Good idea Sirzy. I never actually thought of that. Doh! I hate driving to pick her up as it's such a short distance and I love being out in fresh air but it's all horizontal on way back ah! That's a good idea though. I know in a year or two she will be ok with it. Typical Yorkshire probs ha!

The one I don't understand is rain - that's why we have waterproofs and wellies. Where I live we have to deal with rain or snow at least half the year (usually half the summer as well it seems these days :( ), still have to walk or bike (not so much bike in the snow, bit slippery!), children still walk or bike to school, we just wear suitable clothing and get on with it. The only times when I wouldn't think walking would be ok is if its a literal snowstorm (in which case driving isn't ok either) or its very cold like -25. But I guess its much easier to give in to the appeal of a nice warm dry car when you have one available!

Hills I understand though, hills are my nemesis.

Because it would take an hour and a half to walk there. And DS would probably end up walking around aimlessly all day.

But I know you don’t mean me