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 ?

What is "smug and sneery" about wanting my DS to breathe air that hasn't had pollution warnings about it, Lovelymonkey?

TheKidsAreTakingMySanity. Sorry you have a bad back, I suffer too, I was taking DS to one of his appointments last week during a flare up. I tried so hard to put one foot in front of the other. The centre was literally at the top of the street I live on. In the end a friend in a car spotted me and insisted on giving me and DS a lift. Literally round the corner. I probably looked lazy too

Okay so about 6 posters admit they don't like to walk, the other 200 odd have genuine reasons. I am pretty sure that in the tiny catchment area for our schools not everyone who drives their kids has a health issue or other genuine reason so will just assume they are not on this thread.

I wanted a good private school and so dh drives the kids the 10 miles to get there: they wouldn’t be able to walk as it’s all 70 mph dual carriageway.

When time was not an issue I would walk my kids to school then cycle back on my bike and then get to work.

However I now have to drop my youngest off on my way to work so I do in my 4x4 which we have as we tow a caravan and do a lot of caravanning in muddy conditions so need the traction to get it off the field.

My 2 eldest both walk themselves to school and they know that even in the wettest conditions I can't give them a lift as it's in a complete different direction to the little one's school.

So could well be getting judged but am too old and knackered to give a damn tbh......

I must admit I've sometimes driven the dc to school just because I've straightened my hair for work and it's drizzling . I'm sure other parents have similar shallow selfish reasons and it's entirely possible to walk.

Because op, we live in a rural village with no amenities many miles away from the schools. The roads here and fast and dangerous and without footpaths in places. Sometimes you just can't walk.

Why do you care?

Because, Ttbb, it gives people like the OP the chance to pontificate on how virtuous they are compared to everyone else, who are all lazy, fat,slovenly dolts destined to keel over dead tomorrow from preventable disease and their children, too.

Youngest DD gets bullied on the way to school
DS is a school refuser and I have a duty to get him there
Older DD had a medical conditions and her school is next door to where I work

Is that good enough?

We moved and our dc wanted to stay at their faith school, doing well there and very happy. Unfortunately its about 3.5 miles across town. I'd love to move them to a closer school but dc and dh think they should stay put. Miss our 2 minute walk to school!

I live about a mile and a half from the kids school (primary). I drive almost every day as I'm either on my way to work or somewhere to do something. I'm very busy and don't have time to walk (also watching 3 little kids near a busy road is stressful).

At least if I drive I can park up early to pick them up and get in with calks/work on my device in the car while I wait.

I get what you're saying but you really don't know everyone's circumstances and reasons so best to not judge and see things as the non-issue that they are.

We live about half an hour or so away from school if walking. I still drive though as I WFH 5hrs 45mins a day so if we walked I wouldn't get back in time to work.

No-one I know in real life thinks car use is a "private matter". Air quality, pollution, climate change all make it a public issue with collective consequences. Of course, there are a lot of other decisions that are similar, but that's not a good argument for not seeing the wider impact of our choices, surely?

OP, I do like to walk. I still don't think it is any of my business if other parents prefer to drive.

Best clarify that... I mean I wouldn't get back in time to work the full 5hrs 45mins. Obviously I would be back before the end of school, haha.

We live very close to school and my street is used as a car park. I regularly see parents who I know for a fact live less then 10 minutes away dropping or collecting kids. Perhaps once or twice a week they might be going straight on somewhere else. None have mobility issues. In most cases it's because they are lazy fuckers or because it's raining and their precious pickles might get damp.

And I always park legally in a quiet side street nr the school, the dedicated car park is chaos. Would never park on a dropped curb or on a corner, rather would park a bit further away than inconvenience other drivers/residents.

Archery Annie, nothing smug and sneery about wanting our children to have air that's not polluted. I just find it hard to stomach all the sanctimonious hand wringing about air pollution from people who probably don't think twice about travelling by aeroplane on holiday and countless other lifestyle choices which don't prioritise the environment.
The worst though are the Jeremy Kyle comments. Most of the poorer parents at my dc school do walk as they can't afford to run a car! But it's lazy stereotyping, so casually done on here so often.

I live two miles from school (we moved out of catchment). I have three young children, two have autism, and wouldn’t be able to walk the distance without it hurting their legs (hypermobile joints), not would they do it safely (no sense of danger, so walk into the road without a second thought). When we lived nearer we walked every day, and that was a real mission given the above reasons. Try to remember that other people have different circumstances and different issues affecting them.

Apparently all our local schools are full, so my children have been allocated a school 5 miles away. No buses, walk is an hour + down unlit country roads with no pavements, and secluded footpaths.

I drive them. I have walked home a few times leaving my car in a side street (away from drives and houses! Alongside a garden fence, road isn’t even on the estate), and come back to snotty notes from residents about leaving my car there all day.

But guilty, there are lots of things we do, which have wider consequences, that we do consider to be private matters.
Would posters get pissed off about other people flying to go on holiday? Would they feel they have a legitimate right to walk up to a stranger and tell them they have too many children (possibly on mn but irl you'd get a smack on the nose for being that rude) or tell people they shouldn't eat so much meat or use plastic? Criticising those things to someone's face would be deemed massively rude. Their decision to drive is no different

I have to drop DD off after I have dropped DS at his bus stop. The bus picks DS up at 8.50 and DD's school, which is a 10 minute walk away, has a bell which rigs at 8.57.

I drive so that I can get to school without DD panicking she is going to get a late mark (which happens if DS's bus is late).

They do it purely to annoy you, OP. There's a facebook group where they plan it all out so as to cause you maximum disquiet. Didn't you know?

None have mobility issues and you know that how? I appear to have no mobility issues. I do though. When I'm tired or my leg's tired.