to think that criticism of the school run is a form of sexism?

[Handay]

There seems to have long been a popular narrative that people taking their children to school by car are clogging up the roads with unnecessary journeys and delaying working commuters.

Most of these journeys are done by women.

It is a legal requirement for children to go to school, just as most people are contractually obliged to go to work. For many women, their obligation will fall across both aspects in that they will drop their children at school and then continue to work.

Why then are one set of people using a car in order to travel to somewhere they are obliged to be, criticised? There are, especially in cities, probably lots of car journeys that are "unnecessary" in the sense that the people making them could travel by alternative means. Why are women and children's journeys categorised as somehow less important than those of other road users and why are they repeatedly told that they should not be on the roads?

Just one recent example of this here on Jeremy Vine this week:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00035rk

YABVU. It's not sexist in any way, shape or form.

Kids used to walk to school. I appreciate that there are less schools open these days so some people have no choice but to drive, but there are people who drive their kids in when they could walk and yes, this does clog up roads. Personally I don't really care because I don't drive much, but I understand why people complain about it.

Also, people complain about rush hour/commuter traffic all the time. What planet are you on where no one complains about this?? I would very much like to join you there lol

It's weird how many people view the school run in isolation and think if you can technically can walk then you should. The fact this might make you late for work, mess up your other children's naps or cause issues with multiple school/nursery drop offs seems to be completely ignored. I think it's just another example of people not respecting something that has traditionally been "women's work" so should be easy to do by default. Nobody cares if it's inconvenient or impractical because it impacts predominantly women and reducing traffic would benefit those all important workers who have traditionally been predominantly men.

Lots of people can technically commute to work using some form or combination of public transport/bike/walk but if that added in an hour to their commute would you think they had a moral duty to this? What about half an hour each way?

caked up yes, but has a survey ever been done (by anyone) asking parents why they drive to the school? I have no doubt numbers of drivers go down of they are provided with alternatives- if someone set up a walking bus past my house, I wouldn't do the school run anymore. But lots of us have to drive because we have jobs sandwiched between school drop off and pick up that don't allow for walking whilst our children are at school.

I would love to see evidence that the majority of those who drive to school are not rushing off somewhere else afterwards. I don't think there is any as no one has asked, just assumed that school run is done by lazy mums who go straight home to watch day time TV. It is sexist.

There are news stories and radio adverts aimed at "walk you children to school because it's better for them" (true). But they don't take into account the practicalities and necessity. And they don't tackle short unnecessary journeys traditionally made by men, is driving to station for commuting. (Lots of women obviously drive and commute too, but traditionally didn't hence the difference).

Because the vast majority of the "school run" cars here aren't working mums, they are going home or somewhere that's not time dependent and they live under 10 mins away on foot. There no parking generally so they block drives and park on the zigzags

People need to send their kids to the nearest school. I used to walk with dc, then run the 8 mins home and get my car to go to work. Easier than trying to park etc.

Also, I wasn't a "school run mum" because we were often leaving earlier to go to before school club.
I was "rushing off" to work after either way, but if we left 10 minutes earlier I didn't need to drive them.

I agree handwy

I think its a very interesting point

Im another one lucky enough to live close to an infants school and a junior school so always walked

Senior school is walkable for the children but if its pouring down i am guilty of dropping them off

A fair amount drive their kids to school around where I live. Not only is it walkable but they are not on their way to work. Its bonkers.

Never heard specifically mums being criticised, only parents.

With some justification.

How do you know what most people do after dropping off at school? Have you done a survey or are you assuming ?

This annoys the hell out of me too. Whatever the issue is, traffic, parking etc etc this is an issue with school children and their parents, not the "schoolmums" who are constantly denigrated on my local facebook page, despite the fact that many of the kids are dropped off by their dads/nannies/childminder/grandparents.

if these were tool hire shops that men had to drop their machines back to they would have loading unloading bays
I see yr point but...machines don't usually have little legs they can walk themselves on!
As for a pp saying "walking might mess up other kids naps"..?

My sons school is in a very built up area or terraced houses. Row upon row all around. So the schools on the middle and the streets directly around it are blocked. Awful for 30 mins each end of the school day. Go a street away in any direction and parking no problem at all.
It's the fact that they can't walk more than absolutely have too. I have to get straight to work after drop off. I'm at the junction in my car way before anyone else as I don't have to fight with the idiots who want to drive actually into the school yard.

If you don't know us you wouldn't assume DH or I were off to work after the school run as we're usually dressed very casually. In fact we both work at home a lot so we don't have to be work smart.
One school is walking distance and safe to walk to (so we do), the other isn't.

Random. Yes the ones who live near me I know as I have lived here for years you kinda get to know everyone work/commuting habits. So yes I see them come back after school run in their cars.

Yanbu op. Definitely an element of sexism

Lots of dads round here do the drop off. Mum goes into work super early, leaves early and does the pick up, deals with the afyer school grumpiness, homework, cooking, load of laundry etc and the dads get home in time for their tea..
Doing the drop off is by far the better end of the deal, so in time the school run will be almost exclusively men.

From an ecological perspective, we ought to be ensuring that every child attends the school closest to his/her home, wherever possible. And we ought then to encourage children to walk to and from school without an adult.

People who drive and park as close to the school as possible put children who walk in increased danger.

Where we live most children walk and those who don't take a school bus, but there is an increasing trend for dads particularly to drive their kids to school. I do volunteer traffic duty once per week and these arseholes have no consideration for other children walking and swing in as close to the front of the school as possible at the very last minute possible because they're so very important they couldn't leave five minutes earlier and let their child out in a convenient, free 3/4 empty spots field car park 200 meters down the road. Their rush to work trumps all.

Seeing as they drop their kids off 30 seconds before the bell I suggest they could bring them 45 minutes earlier once per week, park in the car park and take a turn at traffic duty before work like I do . They generally adjust their suit jacket and bark a comment about being late.

Arses.

The crush of cars around UK schools endangers children and is selfish.

No I don't think it's sexist. Yes more women take their kids to school.

But it is inconsiderate to take your Chelsea tractor 10 minutes down the road when you could walk it in the same amount of time. I know the usual argument is people are needing to get to and from work and that's why they drive. That will be true for some, but they could still park a 5 min walk away in most cases. However, there are also the people who leave earlier than they could need to if they walked, because they want to get a parking space near the school. There are also the people who insist on getting close to the school when their older kids could meet them a 5 minute walk away. I live near a school and people start parking in my road 45 minutes before pick up time.

It depends where you live, but where I live there are a lot of lazy people, male and female, who insist on driving and definitely live within walking distance.

And they don't tackle short unnecessary journeys traditionally made by men, is driving to station for commuting

Where I live a lot of people walk and cycle to the station. A side effect of the cost of parking being ridiculous. So I guess there is an upside of the rail company's profiteering.

Yes definitely. If it was more associated with men I'm sure there wouldn't be he same criticism. To me it's the same way that people talk about being a SAHP in a belittling way, as if it's something 'pathetic' women do. If men were mainly the SAHP I bet it would be seen as a heroic, important thing to do.

Interesting point OP.

Followed, predictably, by four pages of people mostly talking about themsleves.

Few people stopping to ask the question 'who are the people expressing these views about school run drivers loudly and publicly and what do THEY mean when they say it?'

Because it's those people OP is talking about. If you don't talk loudly, openly and often about school run drivers, or refer to them in your work as a journalist or TV producer, you are not who OP is talking about.

What do the people who are in those roles say and why do they say that?

I live opposite what is now 2 state primary schools it use to be a split infants school and junior school but they changed it to one religious primary and one secular one. I also live near a nursery and a private primary.

The state primaries have a policy that you cannot drop off your children by car unless you have a good reason e.g they have SEN. Therefore any parent who chooses to use a car has to park a few roads away. As the catchment areas for the schools are now smaller you may as well walk. This happened due to residents near the school, funnily enough including those children attend the schools, kicking up a fuss about parents poor parking being a danger to other people and blocking the roads as the roads are frequently used by the emergency services.

However there is nothing stopping you driving to pick your children up after school. However the parking attendants come out sometimes with the police so if you don't park properly you get in trouble. The police only started coming out due to parents arguing and even assaulting the parking attendants.

The parents of the nursery and private school park properly as if they cause problems their child loses their place.

More men do the morning drop offs than the pick ups.

Oh and two of my brothers use to drop their children off 20 years ago but they lived 5 minutes walk from their schools.