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 ?

Because the school gave me a lovely carparking space with my name on it.

Most likely reason is they are all just lazy! Yanbu.

Splendid. I shall look forward to all the silent judging while I drop one dc off at school in the car in order to juggle 2 hidden disabilities, a second dc at a different school and a job.

If I'm not working I generally take my dc to school in the car because I don't usually go straight home after dropping them off or come from home to pick them up. Instead, I go out to run errands or to whatever and stay out much of the until it's time to go and pick them up. It's also safer because of the big, busy road where the crossing is on a sharp, blind bend and the cars come thundering along so quickly that I'm worried they won't stop in time.

Honestly though, I was thinking this today driving my daughter to school. There are kids who live in the village and I watch the mum pull out of her drive every morning and drive literally 200 metres up the road and park to take them to school. Like it's literally a 5 minute walk away. If not for the trees, you could see the school from her house. I guess maybe you just get into a routine and especially if you also have little ones who may be reluctant to walk (like I mean like 3 year olds), it's easier. But if we had the option to walk (and I didn't have to get to work after), I definitely would unless it was tipping it down.

Well for us it’s because my DC go to a local village school...only we live in a different village...with a very busy and dangerous A road to get across and my dc has mobility issues so yep as much as I would prefer to walk (and not have to do that horrible bloody journey every day which I hate with a passion) I can’t ☹️

I have a baby and use a pram I can't even get on the bus to my kids school cos it's always packed. I've tried to use a sling but it hurts my back so we walk, it's 25 mins up and down steep hills! I wish I had a car I would certainly never walk it if I did. It's alright if you live close but not everyone does. Even the times I manage to squeeze on a bus I can't get back off again as it's so packed and people won't move. My nephew is 14 and gets dropped to school because buses would just drive past him they were so packed and it's to far to walk.

My dh drives our DC to and from school. Our local primary is 1.5 miles away and secondary is 2.5 miles away. My 9 year old and 4 year old are disabled and can't walk very far without their wheelchairs. My 11 year old will sometimes walk to the primary after school and get picked up from there. Sometimes he walks to the nearest car park and dh picks him up from there.

There are too many variables to get a definitive answer.

Personally, I go in the car for the school run. I park as close to school, as I can get, walk DD in and hot foot it back to the car and race off to work.

I live a 10 minute walk from school, but that would add 20 minutes on to my commute, which takes a good half hour (traffic dependant) and I would end up being late for school. not to mention the mess my hair would be in if I had to walk it to and from school...

I like to use our time in the car to practise reading, spellings and just generally have a chat with DD.

We do this 3 times a week and DH walks her the other 2 as they are his days off work.

It works for us

The nearest good school to me is about a 20 minute walk away, with some very busy roads to cross.

My eldest has just started making his own way to school, which is handy as he now starts earlier than my youngest, but my youngest still gets driven as I go to work immediately after dropping him off.

I don't abandon my car irresponsibly though, I park a couple of minutes up the road at the local parade of shops and we walk from there.

I drive my kids to the local school. I have to juggle school start times with two SEN buses for two autistic children. The other autistic child goes to a local secondary school, but has anxiety issues about walking past people in the street and I don't want him to arrive at school in a state of panic.
It's a five minute drive to two different schools.
What I object to is the amount of parents walking their children to school, with eyes glued on phones, marching their children into traffic to cross roads. Someone needs to stop that dangerous behaviour

Depends on the tide... of its in I'd have to drive DS to school, if it's out then we could walk along the beach as there is no other direct route from our house.
Some people live in the middle of nowhere, with no bus routes.
Ds is nowhere near school age yet but if we lived in a town/village he would walk to school.

Okay I get the disabilities and country roads etc.
The other thing worth pointing out is that, a little like sitting and eating dinner together, I have the best chats with my DDs on those walks, we see the flowers coming up in Spring and all the changes through the seasons, play little word games and chat about the school day. No screens or toys just walking and holding hands. Perhaps that sounds a bit crazy but it is actually an enjoyable time of the day

I take my dd on her music lesson day as she has heavy bag swimming kit and a big instrument to take. It takes the same time to drive as walk but she walks the rest of the week.

Well in your example it is baffling - laziness seems the obvious answer.

With me its because I have two kids in two different schools and a job and couldn't get them into the local school, which they could walk to because it was oversubscribed and we didn't get a place with people who could afford to rent an extra house to give themselves an address next to the school temporarily then spend the next seven years driving their kids to school from their real address

As you seem to know the neighbours and their circumstances pretty well, you could try asking them for their reasons.

I do wonder about those who drive very short distances to school (especially London, as parking embuggerations probably take more time than walking back, if you need to drive to work). But I don't know anyone well enough to ask in RL

I agree that you can have better conversations with children when not trying to negotiate commuter traffic, find parking places.

With secondary school children I think it's also a good way of encouraging independence. In the world of work - particularly as car ownership is going to get more expensive and roads more crowded - the ability to navigate one's own way and/or use public transport - the ability to travel by oneself is an important life skill.

Squirm really? It's not the kind of thing you can ask without sounding like an arse is it?
I won't be asking her.

They read the daily mail, I know that, maybe they are terrified of everything ?

I live a 7 minute walk away. There are 5 families that live less than 30 seconds walk away from me that drive. I believe two of them drop on the way to work as I never see them back at home when I come back. The others all drive home again, normally getting back at the same time as me . I know sometimes there will be extenuating circumstances, but I would think that's the exception rather than the norm.

We also have a community centre car park to use for school parking. But they all park outside school, blocking people who live nearby in their drives and garages. If they parked at the community centre they'd have to walk an extra two minutes you see....

If no SEN and the parents aren't dropping them off on their way to work, yanbu. I loved walking to school at that age as I felt so grown up. It was a lot further than that as well. I may not have walked the whole way with my mum though, ("omg so embarrassing lol" or however pre-teens talked in the 90s; "duh", "whatever", "hellooo")? I 'let' her meet me half way.

Why does it bother you so much? It's a non issue.

bottlesandscans

In London, at least, the air quality sometimes gets so bad there is official warnings to stay inside. Every unnecessary journey adds to this risk, and contributes to chronic illness and early deaths. Children, with their developing lungs, are at particular risk.

I've seen my sister's next door neighbour drive her small son to school on the same road where they live.

Not only are short journeys wasteful, lazy and don't save any time, and make other children's health worse, they also make your own children's health worse. Teaching children early that the only way to travel by private car - and not just walk a few minutes - is not doing them any favours at all.

There's a primary school on our estate. Not an outstanding one so it's not like children from out of the catchment area are there and we're just a small village.

It's less than five minutes to walk there from our house yet the people opposite (they work from home) frequently drive their children to and from school. There are also parents who turn up half an hour early to get the prime parking spots nearest to the school and then sit and wait in their cars. Surely they could walk in that time!

It baffles me why some people do it too. I live 1/2 mile from the local primary school. The 'rally' in my street starts at 8.20 when parents start the school run. One parent stops by my house and picks another parent and child up at 8.20 every morning for the 1/2 mile drive to school - which starts at 8.50am. Neither parent works and the DCs don't go to breakfast club. The 'rally' continues up until 8.45 and then we have the return traffic past my house which starts again at 9.00am. Same in the afternoon. These same children who are driven to school are allowed to play out unsupervised and go to the local park by themselves - which is out of site of the street.

I have even witnessed parents who only live 1/4 mile from school strapping children into car seats on a main road (which is on the school route) in order to drive them to the school and probably then have to park some distance away from the school. By the time they've dealt with car seats and parking it would have been much quicker to walk.

Agree you need to avoid being an arse.

I meant finding ways to bring it up in your ordinary conversation (maybe if you're having a moan about traffic of local parking together). Not just asking bluntly out of the blue.