Walking the school run.

[allwalkedout]

I live in a fairly rural area. Cool is 2 miles away and I have one child in full time school and one in pre-school every morning.
I usually take the car to do the school run but do walk it a couple of times a week for one run of the day ( I do it 3x) . Yesterday my car was in the garage so I walked all 3 School runs so totalled 12 miles but it took a huge chunk out of my day and I felt like I didn’t get much done.
I’m a fairly fit person and do triathlons so I’m not unused to physical exercise and didn’t find the walks difficult, just really inconvenient timing wise.
When walking back, another Mum commented that she thought it was odd that I didn’t do it every day and that she thought it wouldn’t be too much of an effort for me to do the 3 runs on foot every day. I asked her if she would and she said she would and that most people she knew would.
I know it’s possible...but realistically, would people really do 3x 4 mile School runs in a day?? Aibu to think most people would find that a bit much, especially since I have a toddler who is confined to the pushchair or carrier for large amounts of time and it means I don’t get the time to do much with him...or am I just lazy??

@formerbabe, exactly - it’s the time.

We are a fairly ‘outdoorsy’ family and my older 2 can walk fairly decent distances for their ages. It’s just not quick and I have far too much to do and honestly, if I did it every day, I’d get bored and start hating it. I enjoy the few times a week I do it. Yesterday was torture by the third time. Toddler was completely fed up and no amount of silly games and snacks in the carrier were enough to keep him happy...and please nobody suggest I let him walk...I’d NEVER get thee 🤣

I used to push my bike with the children walking alongside. I'd load the bike with their bags and kit. Then cycle back. Then cycle back for pick up and walk home with them again. It didn't quite halve the time, but helped. Then on days I worked we'd drive and I'd drop
En route. But I think I was lucky with that!

Um hi! My DS’s school is a 6 minute walk away from my home and still I take the bus sometimes for one stop. Yeah yeah I’m lazy. But yeah, I have to then get DD (19 mths) to Nursery (on my work premises) then get to work for 4 hours, then will do the whole thing in reverse lol.

More often than not I walk, though, but any further and I wouldn’t!

No YANBU!!

Ours is 1.7 miles, I used to walk one way and run the unaccompanied way, unless I was going to work or needed to go somewhere by car from or before going to school. Does take up a lot of time.

@ElectricMonkey honestly I’ve driven it a couple of times thanks to youngest doing a poo just as we needed to leave so it was either drive and get there in 5mins or walk and be at least 15mins late 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's miserable in this weather, with the hills and pushing the chair which with the almost 2yr old in it and the 4yr old on a buggy board is a combined weight of about 5stone. So frankly it is not my most favourite job of the day.

I leave at 8:30 and I’m back by 9:30 then I leave again at 11:30 to pick up said 4yr old, another hour round trip up and down dale.

I’m an outdoors person, I love dog walks but I hate walking the school run!

I should have said that although i do 5.2 miles each day (and DC(3) does 2.6), DC does it on a scooter which i have a lead for so i can help pull up the uphill bits. If she walked, it would take well over an hour just one way, i’m sure.

Also, the majority of our walk is through beautiful parkland which really lifts the spirits, especially on a day like this - all sparkly autumn sunshine and mists. If i didn’t have that inventive, i’d probably start saving for a car

No I wouldn’t Bdcggafs coming from someone that walks the 1.5 miles to school and back 2 or 3 times a week. I always get comments about how weird it is to choose to walk

That should read ‘and that’s coming from’.

Coffee time....

I don't drive (I'd love to) and am all about environmental friendliness but this seems like a good reason to drive?!
The opposite happens to me, people ask me how I 'manage' walking shorter distances and certain busy bodies are very judgey about why I don't have a car and 'how hard my life must me'. You can't win with some people, they have to make stupid comments.

DSD2's school is 2.5 miles away and google maps tells me it would take approx 50 mins to walk. We use the car as I go to work straight after and the train station is another 2.5 miles from school. We used to have to drop DD at nursery too, which was at least another half-mile away. Tbh we could now manage our school runs by bike if necessary but it would be awkward. DSD2 has a guitar lesson once a week so she'd need to take that on a bike which could be tricky. Once she goes to secondary we won't need a car for school run as DDs school is 5 min walk. DH and I could both bike to work/station and DD childminder lives on our road.

That’s the exact attitude I come across @IrishMamaMia. We’re a one car family and DH uses it 90% of the time for work, so we walk a lot and SHOCKER ALERT use public transport

We love walking. We have a beautiful walk to and from school past fields of cows and over a river. We get to cross a railway line too and on the rare occasion a train comes along we can wave to the driver and passengers. I think the 40 minutes walk really helps her mentally prepare for school on the way and helps her chill out on the way back.

Having said that. There’s no way I’d manage 3 times a day!

She's full of shit. Technically anyone in reasonable physical shape could do it, I used to on a poor bus route and no car when I was juggling one just starting reception with split days and his older brother but it was only for a few weeks and I was glad when it was over. If I'd had a car for those few weeks I'd have totally driven all of them! It wasn't about exercise/environmental concerns it was the chunk of time it took out of my day when I had other things to do.

I would definately walk that three times a day, you're soooo lazy.

7.50-8.30 Walk in with three kids so give youngest a toy and quiz eldest two on maths, English, science.

8.50-9.30 Walk back with baby so practice speech and counting.

90 minutes to change, feed toddler, change the bed sheets, hoover the down stairs

11.00-11.40 Walk in with baby, learn to name nature
12.00-12.40 Walk back with two, get middle child to teach baby all she learnt that day

2 hours to feed kids, hoover upstairs, swap the washing over, clean the bathrooms

14.40-15.20 Walk back with two, make up poems about the route
15.30-16.10 Walk back with three. Get oldest to teach middle child everything she's learnt that day.

Then two hours before DH is home to do home work, cook dinner, clean kitchen and living room. Honestly if you're not doing at least this every day you're wasting your life.

I only live a mile away, we occasionally get the bus and sometimes I use the three hours at nursery just to drink coffee but you know, if I lived your life I'd TOTALLY walk it all 😉

That's a lot for your preschooler (unless he's still in a buggy but that should last much longer). I walk 2 miles a day for school run and D's walked with me when we dropped his sister off last year but he wouldn't have been able to do much more than that.

I wouldn't have time to walk - 3 hours each day!
I would (and did) cycle though but only once a day as dh did the morning trip and no nursery run for us.
With traffic and parking charges driving wasn't a practical solution for us.

SleepingStandingUp Our timetable is very similar, but I always manage just to squeeze a little baking or crafting together in those 2 hours before DH gets home. I'm not judging you, though, I enjoy developing the kids in this way so it's no bother.

My 3 year 9 month old has just started walking back from nursery. He does say he's tired but won't get back in the buggy. Yes it's slower than him being in the buggy but he loves it. My daughters have walked since reception and are used to it. People think I'm amazing to do I  No, I'm not amazing, I don't drive, the bus costs a fortune and walking a minimum of 25 miles per week let's me eat chocolate and not pay gym fees.
We go on holiday on public transport too-the surprised looks I get from people is funny  Yes, I'm a single parent, yes, 3 children, yes, with a buggy, yes I can fit all we need under the buggy or carry it in rucksacks, yes, it's hard work but we don't know any different. You'd think we were going down the mines the way people go on!

SleepingStandingUp I did all of that and studied for two PHds and built my own house! Again, not judging, but clearly you are an underachiever and could make much better use of the time you use for sleeping standing up.

Mookatron obviously I bake whilst cooking dinner, it's hardly a bother to bake scones for the needy or two dozen loaves for school whilst preparing dinner. As for crafts I consider them a soft skill so I reserve it for between Mandarin and Advanced Algebra on a Sunday. Whilst I'm baking the oldest works through the dictionary with the younger ones. Latin of course.

OP it's like she's stealth bragging about how much better she'd be at your life it without any way to prove it

RibbonAurora oh please, you're still studying? Bless you. After the third PhD I decided that I would better serve the world by travelling to a foreign country every weekend and doing charity work. The Manor House we built one long weekend when I was 9 months pregnant and I lay every tile myself. Evenings I dedicate to writing to my children's friends parents advising them how they could better parent their children. It's the only kind way to live.

She's talking out of her hat. I'm reasonably fit and walk the school run. School is almost a mile away, and I do two runs a day. That's manageable, if not a bit miserable when it's pelting with rain. I used to do three school runs a day, and that was tipping the balance, it was just too much. I could physically do it, but there are only so many hours in the day to get stuff done.

Sixty miles walking a week is more than Dh used to run when marathon training.

As a child I used to walk to and from secondary school and at lunch time! So in total 4.8 miles a day.
Only took 20 minutes per trip and I was still able to have a 20 min lunch.
I hated using the toilets at school so marching back home was important to me.
This was back in the 80s.

P Smurf. The good ol' 80s But you were'nt dragging 1-3 kids with you and 4.8 mile is not 12 miles.
Sleeping Standing up - are you sure you couldn't squeeze just a few more activities in ? Loved your post BTW.

I would happily do it in nice weather if it was a pleasant walk (to be perfectly honest I would rather that than play with my toddler) but in this cold/heat I would drive.