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Original poster

Why do people drive their kids to school??

614 replies

brightonbaker · 28/09/2017 09:27

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 ?

OP posts:
Carrie80 · 30/09/2017 13:58

Why are people saying it could be for work reason etc op has stated twice that they don't work that's its not miles so there is no need to drive. It's bad on the environment it clogs the road. I work in non emergency transport and it is so much harder to collect our patients during the school runs due to so much unnecessary traffic outside schools. I could not walk to secondary school I had to get the bus. kids that age can and should take themselves to school how else are they going to learn.

Doseydoe · 30/09/2017 15:15

I drive my kids to school because I can and I want to. My youngest's school is the other side of town five miles away and would take 40 mins to walk. My eldest is in high school a ten minute walk away. He walks most days but if one day he can't be bothered, is running a little late or it's raining then I'll give him to school. He's not lazy, not the n the slightest and so if I want to drive him I will and shouldn't have to explained why to a complete stranger.

LadyinCement · 30/09/2017 18:50

Ok, doseydoe, you win the prize. Ten minute walk and you drive your secondary school-aged ds to school? Now that is lazy.

4foxsake · 30/09/2017 19:00

This is one of my pet peeves. I live on a large housing estate & our nearest primary school is approx 3 miles away. Because of this, our LA provide school buses to take the kids to & from school. There are 4 buses calling at 5 different bus stops throughout the estate so that nobody on the estate lives more than a 5 minute walk away from a bus stop. Yet still we get these lazy arse parents driving the 5 minute walk to the bus stops. And not only that, they park exactly where the bus is supposed to stop so that the buses end up having to park further and further away, quite often in dangerous places (like opposite junctions or right on roundabouts).

I get that parents have to get to work (although most of the parents at my bus stop are SAHMs)- I work full time myself but surely a 5 minute walk back to get the car isn't really too much to ask especially when half stand around chatting for 10 mins after the bus has gone

purplegreen99 · 30/09/2017 19:19

I drive my kids to school because I can and I want to...shouldn't have to explained why to a complete stranger

Sorry, maybe you didn't mean it that way, but that sounds breathtakingly selfish. I can understand the 5 mile trip, but a 10 minute walk? I live virtually next door to a school and apparently our air quality is dramatically better during school holidays. My road and the ones around are gridlocked for 15 mins twice a day, not to mention the dozens of cars, mostly with their engines idling, sitting waiting for their kids in the afternoon. This school has a catchment of less than a mile.

I think parents who choose to drive short distances do have something to explain - not just to people living near schools, but to their own children and all the other kids in the schools who have to put up with lethal air quality which we know is killing people. And we all know, don't we, that we have to do something to reduce our use of fossil fuels? Cutting back on driving is quite a simple way to contribute.

I am not perfect, I do drive my children to school occasionally (they don't go to the school next door) but at least I feel that I have some responsibility for the consequences of my choices.

Lethaldrizzle · 30/09/2017 19:26

I live in an area close to lots of schools and nurseries. Every morning I see people packing their wee ones into cars to drive god knows how short a distance . Drives me mad. 'Scuse the pun!

zippyswife · 30/09/2017 19:39

Because I didn't get my 3 choices that we're close to my home. Instead they gave me one 3.5 miles away Angry

scaryteacher · 30/09/2017 19:45

I used to drive ds to school in the next county, so a 15-20 minute drive, and there was no public transport. I then used to drive back into our county to the school at which I taught. Often in rural areas there is no public transport, so you drive.

Silver47 · 30/09/2017 19:51

Why does it bother you so much? It's a non issue of course it is not a non issue, they are pointless, selfishly and needlessly polluting ur home planet, it is everybodies business.

Silver47 · 30/09/2017 19:53

I drive my kids to school because I can and I want to. criminally selfish, if there was any justice in the world, this would incur prison sentence. You think yourself entitled to poison the air we all have to breathe just cos you are rich and lazy?

if my son couldn't cope with a 40 minute walk to school I'd die of shame

woodhill · 30/09/2017 19:59

I agree about the affluence aspect. Where I live the roads are clogged with gas guzzlers driving their secondary school dc to the private schools. We have excellent transport links so it is ridiculous.

dairymilkmonster · 30/09/2017 20:45

...because ds' school is several miles away across the city and he is 6.

He can't cycle all that way daily, esp lots of main roads etc. Plus I would then have a loooong cycle to work.
Could go by bus, but when we tried it the bus took longer than car and then a significant walk at the end, plus I was then at school without transport to get to work.

I totally agree most secondary school kids can get to local schools independently.

ClothEaredBint · 30/09/2017 21:19

because

  1. my oldest has Autism, ADHD & Dyspraxia and he initially wouldn't walk that far, now he has issues getting ready on time without meltdown, its also safer to only have to cross one road from where I park to the school, than the 5 or 6 I have to cross if we walk.

  2. I have a degenerative disk disease and I can't walk that kind of distance without seriously hurting myself.

Racheyg · 30/09/2017 21:21

You have to live 0.3 of a mile to get to dc1 school. Absolutely no point driving even if it's chucking it down.

JennyLane · 30/09/2017 21:30

We're about a fifteen minute walk. We've driven once because I wanted to go to the sorting office to collect a parcel and by some bizarre miracle everyone was ready half an hour earlier than usual so I decided to take advantage and go to the sorting office before school (oh what a rock and roll life I do lead!)
Ds moans about the walk sometimes and as he's only just 4 I do sometimes let him ride on the buggy board.. depends how much other stuff I'm having to cart about too! Usually he runs with whichever friends he encounters on the way home. We live in the more affordable part of town so most people seem to walk

jarhead123 · 30/09/2017 21:32

We live 2 miles from school - that's the main reason I drive

BakewellTarts · 30/09/2017 21:32

DD1s secondary school is 7 miles away over country lanes. She gets the bus but the car is a back up plan if she misses it.

DD2s primary school is 4 miles away over different country lanes. We drive her she's too young to walk.

Yes ideally both wouyld walk to school as I did but the realtry of our rural life means they can't.

Lethaldrizzle · 30/09/2017 21:38

Dairy - if you live in a city, surely there must be a primary school closer to you for your 6 year old

Silver47 · 30/09/2017 22:10

We live 2 miles from school - that's the main reason I drive

that is insane, two miles! You think that is a driving distance not a walking one? what the hell have we come to.

MynewnameisKy · 30/09/2017 22:29

But surely two miles from school is a four mile round trip walk.

Not something most people have time for twice a day!

Silver47 · 30/09/2017 22:37

But surely two miles from school is a four mile round trip walk.

Not something most people have time for twice a day!

any secondary child can walk that close to school, unless they have some type of physical disability.

If the parent wants to go with them, but not walk 4 miles ( and 4 miles is perfectly doable, and no cause for comment in most places in the world,) then walk half way.

A primary age child can walk there accompanied, and again, if the parent is going on to work, then they are not walking back, and if they are not going on to work, they have plenty of time to walk back.

it is beyond insanity that there are people who genuinely believe that two miles is too far to walk. This most be the most pandered to, spoilt, entitled generation the world has ever seen ( in parts!) apologies to those of this generation who are less selfish and more realistic, I know there are many of you too!

JonSnowsWife · 30/09/2017 22:45

that is insane, two miles! You think that is a driving distance not a walking one? what the hell have we come to.

You're talking doing that four times a day. Walking there, walking back. Walking back over there to pick them up from home or your workplace and walking back over with them home.

2miles walk is about 30min for a fit person. So that's 8miles and 2 hours out your day to walk kids to school. Where a car journey for the same distance can take 10minutes. Some walking school routes are completely impassable in bad weather.

MynewnameisKy · 30/09/2017 22:55

Silver47 I can only assume you have a nice middle class life. Over in Trying to keep the wolf from the door land we haven't time for 4 mile walks. Although I do actually send mine on the bus mostly.

Silver47 · 30/09/2017 23:25

Silver47 I can only assume you have a nice middle class life. Over in Trying to keep the wolf from the door land we haven't time for 4 mile walks.

but you are wealthy enough to own and run a car?

Although I do actually send mine on the bus mostly. old enough to travel by bus alone= old enough to walk alone anyway.

Silver47 · 30/09/2017 23:36

You're talking doing that four times a day. Walking there, walking back. Walking back over there to pick them up from home or your workplace and walking back over with them home.

you're talking as if this is something unusual. or exceptional, or unreasonable, rather than the absolute norm for most human beings in most places on earth and in most times in history.

It is only very recently in very wealthy and cossetted societies, such as ours that the luxury of driving this journeys has been available to some people.

It is excessive, self indulgent an immoral to drive such tiny distances without good reason. It is poisonous to the whole planet.

However, this will be the last few years any such thing is possible, thank fully. The days of private car ownership are coming to an end, and I only wish it could have been decades earlier, before such extreme damage to the environment

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