Parents (mostly mums) taking the mick dropping kids off to school (PARKING)

[Anotherragingmorning]

Another morning another battle trying to find parking outside school. With mums mainly huddled around in playground or standing outside their cars talking while other parents struggling to find parking spots.

My DC primary school on a road with one end busy road, other end parking restrictions. Opposite school houses with driveways that now (over summer hols) have had double yellow lines installed due to parents blocking driveways. School has opened up their car park to help out but only a few spaces available about 10 and road has about 15 so In total about 25 parking spots. Causing a huge lack of space now. Takes about 2-3 minutes to walk kids in and drop off. Yet cars are parked up for 10-15 minutes at times. I know it's parents because as soon as the bell goes all the cars disappear.

Since school started I am having to drive up and down several times before finding a slot. Lucky if someone pulls out just as I come in otherwise a constant battle.
Yes this is a 1st world problem but one none the less I am having to live through almost every day. Since school started 2+ weeks ago my 2DC have been late 4 times. This morning being 4th time, and been told by office next time they are it will be marked as late.

AIBU to think this is pure inconsideration for other parents needing to drop their kids off too? Do parents really think this is their slot for however long they choose to have it?

I thought if you lived more than 1.5 miles away from your catchment schools, you had free transport. If the older child has to take a 4 mile bus trip, then she qualifies- problem solved!!

Oh my goodness op. It's like banging ones head against a brick wall.

No one knows you. You post on an Internet forum about your predicament. Everyone suggests what they might do, helps you out with possible suggestions. At the beginning no one knew you couldn't afford breakfast club or the bus, nor did they know why an NT 12 year old could not walk 2 miles given thousands upon thousands of 12 yr olds do this daily.

There is an obvious answer to all this. Walk!! All of you walk! Stop wrapping your 12 yo in cotton wool.
This way everyone gets to school on time, you save petrol money, it's better for the environment, the mums still get to talk to their friends.
You can't seem to see past everybody else changing what they do to suit you.

Its 3 miles for free transport where I live. The Op's DC's school is only 2 miles away.

Wow. So many people who simply don't care about how their actions impact on others

Why on earth would you hang around / chat when you know others will need the space your car is currently occupying. It's just called being a considerate person!

YANBU !! I would suggest to the school they look to put time limits on the spaces at the school to encourage more considerate behaviour from everyone.

@user1471461798 are you sure it's 1.5 miles for secondary? I would imagine most children in the country would be walking more than that to secondary.
In my town we have one secondary where everyone goes, town is about 4 miles from one end to the other, and school is not in the middle. It'll be a 2.5 mile walk once dd gets to y7. She won't be getting a lift.

OP stated earlier her older child had to take 2 buses- total 4 miles, so I assumed the secondary was 4 miles from her house and primary 2 miles

I can't walk directly from my house as the quickest route to primary approx a mile or just under would be going through 2 short country lanes that do not have appropriate footpaths. I would have to take the longer route. Which is just over a mile. I need to be back home by 9:15pm the latest to be able to answer emails and take calls

Walking straight with all the DC would be 4-4 1/2 mile round trip. 3 miles approx for the younger 2. I would not be back home in time to start work. Maybe if it was still summer time would be nice. Doubt it with the recent weather and with winter now coming up.
My DC get plenty of exercise when we go to the park to walk our neighbours dog several times a week. Plus running around and playing at school. So those worried about that don't need to.
I didn't say there was definite parking further afield. I said I would have to look for it. As I have only driven around the 4/5 roads surrounding the school to know there are restrictions imposed.

Children getting two buses to secondary school is not unusual at all - its also a good way for them to meet potential travel mates, maybe from another form within her year. This is what happened with my DD1. They do have to get up earlier and be organised but that is hardly bad training in life. Surely the cost of the bus fares ( season/multi fare discount ? ) would also be defrayed by the reduction in fuel and wear and tear on your car ?

The single parent complaint isn’t going to resonate well with most people - in a two resident parent family it must be fairly unusual for both to do the school run, anyway. Certainly never occurred to us to arrange it that way.

Haha! I'm pretty sure that this is now a wind up. "Do not have appropriate footpaths"...

OP why can't you just drop your eldest at 8.10-8.15 and then calmly drive and park outside your school?

Bicycles for all?

You'd hate the primary school i work at OP: the parents were chatting so long that the head decided to embrace it and has opened a mini Cafe on site. The kids who were stars of the week the previous week help to run it in mornings. Amazing way of encouraging community around a school.

OP you're getting a hard tine here. If you want everyone to get off your back, why don't you post the name of the primary school? I'm sure that a quick bit of Google mapping will prove that there is no suitable parking outside of that immediate street and we can all declare YANBU

I actually disagree that imposing a "maximum drop off time" will even solve the problem. OP mentions that there are lots of parents that drive round and round looking for a spot, so even if parents move off more quickly you're going to get - maybe another lot of 25 cars in? And as OP points out herself, more people will drive as the weather gets worse, and as term goes on the number of parents who legitimately need to go into the school office, or talk to the teacher before school , so they spend longer there ... will increase. Not to mention that if there's no chatting allowed the parents that currently come early might start arriving later and some parents who have decided to park further away or made another arrangement might decide they don't need to bother any more ...

If you turn up at the last minute and try to find a parking space outside school - any school - you won't be able to.

If you park further away from school or give yourself more time, the school run will go more smoothly.
That's basically what the thread boils down to?

Our school also has a Friday coffee stand to raise funds for the PTA and people wander to the next door park to chat. Parking's a nightmare but I've honestly never heard anyone suggest people needed to stop chatting!

When I was dropping at primary i had to park at least at quarter of a mile away. Tbh it was safer to park further away as congestion was horrendous and road narrow. I used to get there with five mins to spare we just had to walk quickly.

@Sisgal
Are you naturally just a nasty piece of work? Or just unhappy about your life as a whole? I have inconvenienced others?? How? By what? Asking for them to be more considerate. It's not just about me though is it? I see many parents struggling because some entitled twats like you think it's more important for them to be able to gossip at their leisure then children actually being able to be dropped of to school on time.
No that's right your kids inside on time so fack everyone else's.

You would have hated me then OP. The parking spaces immediately outside ds's primary school had a half hour limit on but the ones further along the road were an hour. I used to park up, drop off then quickly nip across to the local shops.

Ds is at a different secondary school now 3 miles away from where we live. Its not safe for him to walk along the pavementless lane from our house and to go the long way round is 5 miles so all I do is drop him off a between half a mile to a mile away. On occasions where I hjave had to take dd to school 40 miles away ds has simply cycled the long way from home. It takes about 45 minutes.

The crux of the matter is tht if a car is parked legally and safely then the occupant has the right to stay as long as they want (within any stated restrictions) to do whatever they want.

OK breakfast club is pricey, but it doesn't cpst enything to move your routing forward by 15 minutes! You can't change other people but you can change what you do (and probably lower your stress levels in the process :) )

Ok, so now we have:

1. Can't leave a 12 yo standing outside school gates for more than ten minutes.
2. Can't let a 12 yo walk on her own for two miles.
3. Can't afford a bus for 12 yo.
4. Not responded about cycling.
5. Can't walk on a road without appropriate footpaths even with an adult.

There's a pattern to this op, and it all revolves around everyone else changing to suit your whims.

Older child can walk by themselves surely?
Younger 2 you can walk them- over or under a mile shouldn't take that long. Then if you drop at 0845 gives you 30 mins to be back at your desk- walking.
But I don't think you care.
I think you just want everyone to say poor You, how awful of those other mothers. Maybe arrange for a police escort to clear the roads ahead of you so that you get the best spot. They can blast from their megaphone "make way for VIP family who want a just in time car parking spot. Clear the way!" Would that be suitable?
You are being so very unreasonable.

Timshort - what an absolutely fanstastic idea the cafe is.

@AlexanderHamilton i know, i really love our head.

It can be that rural if there's a petrol station at the bottom of the road - our nearest one is 11miles away!

There are double yellows on the street DS's school is on - and only resident permit parking allowed on the surrounding streets for a good five/ten minute walk in any direction. There are three 30 min parking spaces outside the school, for a school with 400 students (plus a secondary school with 800 students just round the corner). The spaces are next to a BT junction box so 50% of the time they are blocked by a big BT van. We all manage somehow - I just set off earlier and if driving I park ten mins away then walk in. There was always the same few idiots dropping off on the zigzags until the Head started standing there and reporting them to the police, it died down after that.