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 ?

I don't walk if it's raining, hate walking in the rain. Yeah I could wear wellies and a waterproof coat but it would still get in my face and my trousers would get wet. Easier to drive, and I really don't care what people think.

Waterproof trousers are a thing. I suppose for me its that I don't want DD growing up thinking she can just opt out of bad weather rather than deal with it.

I live in cyprus. Two kids go to school in opposite directions. One would take 10 minutes to walk to,the other about 40. It is too hot to walk most of the year,and also difficult to coordinate. I. The morning,hubby take s one and I take the other as they both start at 7:40. At pick up,one finishes at 1:05 and the other at 1:35, so I have time to pick them both up. There is a school bus for the one who is further away,but we have allergies and food is always being chucked about on the bus so that's why we don't use it. Also,like yourself,we have the best conversations in that time (even if we are in the car) as we are both decompressing and enjoying the air conditioning!

To save time and agro in the morning. My dd is a nightmare to get up age seven and she needs ten minutes to fully wake up before getting ready. I have myself to get ready for work and we end up rushing out the door. School would be a half hours walk from my house. I have work to get to and I'm not prepared to get up two hours earlier than I ready do.
She goes into the playground and runs riot with her pals getting fresh air before going into the classroom. It's not a five hour coach journey you know.

Natsku - I knew a Finnish girl who said her mum used to ski to school in winter. That sounds fun! (On the other hand, I have a Finnish friend who hates skiing because she had to do it in PE).

This article about the school run Swiss-style makes for interesting reading. Not that I can imagine young children here being allowed to walk unaccompanied.

I don't walk because the logistics of getting us all to where we need to be simply don't add up otherwise. Not sure why some people don't seem to get that.

Judgy pants on then?

GhostsToMonsoon My mum grew up in Lapland on an island in a lake so to get to school she had to row a boat during the spring and early autumn and ice skate/ski in the winter - they did this by themselves, parents were obviously too busy working on the farm/taking care of the younger children, part of the year they had to board at the school as the ice wasn't thick enough to cross on. My uncle almost drowned though rowing by the rapids.

DD's route to school is along the cross country ski routes in the forest so she has the option to ski in the winter - I'm going to recommend it, at least on the days she has skiing at school as she'll need to take her skis with her anyway so might as well use them!

Liked that Swiss style school run article, especially how the other children in the class helped the one with the broken leg - that must teach them so much about resourcefulness, empathy, taking care of each other and responsibility. I make DD walk alone because I think its important too like the Swiss do though I'm not strict on it, sometimes she asks me to meet her on her way home or walk her to the forest path in the morning and I will but 90% of the time she does it alone.

I think they do it to make it pointless for me to try and leave my house between 8.45 and 9.10. It's a mile to my office, and between those times it takes 15-20 minutes, outside those times, 5 minutes (I use the car because I have to go and visit clients, on the rare days I don't have visits, I walk to work).

There are 2 families in my road, 0.2 miles from the school, who drive them there and drive back again. There used to be a "walking bus" arrangement, but that seems to have fallen into disuse. I live in a small town, and almost all the children at this school live within a mile.

The parking is horrendous, parents block driveways, double park and hold up traffic doing 3-point turns in the main road. Hardly a month goes by without some sort of prang because a harassed parent has pulled into or out of a space without checking mirrors. Only a few days ago, a guy nearly took my front wing off using the junction as a turning circle.

I'm never living near a school again.

Lots of Europe is closer to the Swiss article than to the UK approach. Kids in Holland and Germany walk or bike alone too, and schools also don't have all the gates and locks around them. It feels far healthier and happier to me.

Having said that, there is a downside to that much public pressure to conform, even if what you are conforming to is usually wonderful.

Various reasons.

a) because I had a train to catch and a job to hold down. Its easier to drive to the school, release children upon the world, drive to station

b) because school was 4 miles away and my life is too short to be trudging in the pissing rain

c) Secondary - I worked there at the time

.

I love the Swiss style walk to school. Makes my neighbours seem even more ridiculous. The thing is that I think they are doing their kids a disservice, there is lots to gain from walking.

I would love to be able to walk my kids to school but we didn't get into the village school because it's a church school and religion (or at least pretending to be a churchgoers) trumps living right next to it so the LEA sent us to one in the nearest town which is 15mins drive down an extremely busy and fast A-road.
Even if it was safe to walk down & cross it would be over an hours walk there.
There is a school bus for secondary, I can't wait.
I understand schools get oversubscribed but what annoys me is how many kids are driven in from outside the village because it's an outstanding CofE school and their parents are less honest than we are. It's amazing how our church that struggles for a congregation most of the time, has parts of the year when it's very full. They don't have a permanent vicar so every year it seems to happen without question. (I'm not a churchgoers but am active in the community)

We live walking distance but I drive them. But ds has autism and anxiety and can't manage the walk unless I walk with him which is really embarrassing for a year 9. Dd does walk but I will drive her if she wants as I am driving ds. But I agree that walking is better if you can.

and schools also don't have all the gates and locks around them

Same here, no gates and locks around DD's school except for at the preschool end where there's a fence and a gate (no lock though) as there's a busy road on the other side and its on a slope - needed to stop balls and running children falling into the road! Gates and locks wouldn't work here anyway as school hours vary so some children start at 8, others 9, some not until 10 or later (which is a key reason why children go unaccompanied as it would be pretty difficult to work around those varying hours if you have to go to work and SAHPs are rarer here), and they finish at different times too so there's always children coming and going from the school so would be very annoying for staff to have to constantly unlock gates.

The thing is that I think they are doing their kids a disservice, there is lots to gain from walking Absolutely

I then get home and go to work, I'm lucky I can start at 9:30.

I drop my kids off at school on the way to work, as I don't have the luxury of only heading in at 9:30.

Though this thread makes me wonder what parents of children with additional needs that would make walking to school difficult do over here. Perhaps the school provides transport for those children (a bus/taxi service is provided for those living over a certain distance or those that live somewhere that would be dangerous to walk so perhaps children with additional needs could be included in that)

I can sometimes understand people taking their primary aged kids on the way to work (although it's still better not to try and park up right outside school). But I will never understand the rationale for driving secondary aged kids. Especially where we are as the two schools have c.800m catchment areas so it really is never far!

I drive my ds to school ( which is a 12 minute walk from my house. 0.7mile to be exact ) he starts school at 9am and i start work at the opposite side of town (3.3 miles away) at 9.15am. Even driving i walk into the building at 9.15am. I am very lucky to have understanding employers.

Ds is only 6 and in p2. He would need to cross the main road that runs up through the town. Then 5 entrances to streets. These streets are all dead ends for cars so theres the traffic both in and out to think about. Once he is old enough I would let him walk to school but not at the moment hes to young

I always feel guilty about pulling up in the car to pick DS up when we live really close. However, the reality is that he has an instrumental lesson at 4pm at the other side of the town, and it is in the opposite direction from home. To be fair, we do walk the rest of the time.

I grew up taking the train and then doing a 20 - 25 minute walk to school.

My own kids have always walked to school - 10 minutes to primary school and 15-20 minutes to secondary. I think its good for them and they enjoy nattering with their mates on the way there and back.

Of course its not possible for everyone.

However, if it is possible I think its a good thing. As lots of people have said - for exercise, fresh air, the environment plus their friendships and independence. Kids today do get a lot more mollycoddled by their parents and there's a risk its set them back in terms of learning to stand on their own two feet.

Natsku your life sounds amazing !
That's so interesting.

danTDM I grew up in the UK so often compare life as a child there with the life my DD has here and couldn't imagine moving back despite there being so many things I miss about the UK because here she has so much freedom and is learning responsibility and independence before she gets to the risk-taking age of 11+

DD currently walks or cycles to school most days. If I am running late and hence she is too, I will drop her as I drive out of our estate and turn right to go to the train station but I will either drop her at the entrance to the estate or turn left to get to school before going for my train (depending on how late we are).

She has mostly walked or cycled for a lot of her primary years (final year now) but there was a 2 year period where we had a minder coming in for an hour in the mornings to let DH and I get out (and as DH was away 50% of the time, I HAD to get to work early to be able to get home for the end of the afterschool club) - but she had a back problem so would drive DD to school most of the time.

School does have a LOT of bicycle parking (they've had to double capacity recently due to demand) and has a walking bus as well.

But they have also instigated (a few years back and policed by volunteer parents organized by the PTA) that there are roughly 20 parking spots at the school to pull into and park, but the 6 right next to school (where the DCs don't have to cross the road, just walk down the path to the gates) are kept as "kiss and drop" spaces where Parents pull in, offload DCs and pull out again (you can get out to get things from the boot etc, but it is expected that the parent does not leave the car and it is a high capacity option). There is also plenty of parking in the car park beside the school as we are on the grounds of an art college. But our school has a wide catchment - lots are very local but lots come from up to 8 miles away (in the city - that's quite some distance!). Some can use public transport, but there is a need for some parent drop-offs (and plenty who could walk but won't).

Re the locked gates etc. I live near Dunblane.