Is this school run ridiculous?

[BluePeonie]

Dd is at secondary 10 minutes drive from our house.

Two younger ones are at primary 25 minutes drive from our house (usually takes 45 minutes in morning traffic including dropping DD off on the way) . I spend 2 hours a day on school run in total with toddler in tow.

Our house is great, rural and big enough for all of us. We wouldn't be able to afford this in the city. I always visit friends or go to toddler groups/town in the city after the morning school run which works out well.

The (state) primary school is exceptional and DC are very settled and have great friends. If it wasn't for this I'd move them!!

DH doesn't want to live in the city. I wouldn't mind, love the country but had the commute!

Is this ridiculous?

Not trying to be four Yorkshiremen here, but no pavements doesn't mean death trap. I used to walk the five miles home from the nearest village from age 4 upwards, my mum would use the pram for shopping! Unless there were particular accident rates I personally wouldn't worry about it.

Oh and I had a half mile walk before a 20m minibus trip to school from 4 too.

I'm not going to say it's to everyone's liking or preference, but it does sound precious to my ears, having experienced it and it being perfectly fine.

I moved house when DC were in yr 3. They wanted to stay at their original school. I didn't mind the 30 minute drive at all (into London) but I also worked down there so didn't feel like a waste of time.

On a side note, it was terrible in the snow or when I was ill.

I think a lot of this is dependant on how good the schools actually are. If the primary schools are very much on a par, then I would consider moving them nearer home. DS's secondary catchment school is awful and we managed to get him in a secondary 15 miles away, whose results are 3 times better than where he was supposed to go. For us the school run is definitely worth it to us, as we can see how much better he is doing, academically, than his primary cohort who went to the catchment school. If there is an obvious benefit to your children's primary school, then I'd stick with the travelling, but if not, I'd move them.

I think a lot of this is dependant on how good the schools actually are

As i am in this situation, and want to move my kids, the controlling factor is whether the nearer schools have places.

Most even reasonable schools are oversubscribed these days. No school place, no move.

IF I have kids I am not going to drive to their school I will not pay for their school bus

Sale123 you don't have any idea of the future and wether you will be able to afford to live in an area with a decent school in walking distance for example. Unless of course you already bought a family home with good schools close by. Many factors go into the choices families make.

iF I have kids I am not going to drive to their school I will not pay for their school bus

Good luck with that. Do you already live within walking distance of quality primary and secondary schools, and qualify under council rules?

Unless you live very inner city- where schools generally aren’t great, or in London, where the schools are good but you have to live practically on the doorstep. Also bear in mind that house prices increase dramatically the close you live to a good school...

I'm not going to say it's to everyone's liking or preference, but it does sound precious to my ears, having experienced it and it being perfectly fine.

And how long ago was that? The roads get busier year on year. Our lane is the only route to the next village, unless you want to do a 10 mile detour. Consequently, the lane is quite busy and there have been a few accidents in the 17 years we've lived here. One of our neighbour's sons was knocked off his bike twice, another neighbour's dog was killed, and another has had their wall crashed into a couple of times. Even adults don't like walking it. There's nothing precious about that.

I'm not going to say it's to everyone's liking or preference, but it does sound precious to my ears, having experienced it and it being perfectly fine.

Surely that massively depends the kinds of roads?

The roads here are full of blind corners, and are often not wide enough for more than one vehicle - it would be stupidly dangerous to walk along them as a competent adult, let alone as a child or teenager. Every week there are cars who have collided with walls, signs or farmhouses because they've been speeding and haven't been able to take the corners properly.

But apparently because you did it on one specific road, then you seem to think every other road in the country is the same and safe too?