To think a 40 minute walk to school nursery is manageable?

[Heckythump1]

We are looking at pre-schools for September for an almost 4 year old. (We've just found out we have to move in a few weeks) we have a few choices but our favourite on paper is a school nursery 40 minutes walk away. Neither of us drive so we will have to walk whatever the weather, although there are buses for some of the journey.
We are visiting all options in the next week or so.
Am I being daft wanting to send them to a better place further away or should I send her to a closer one that I don't like as much?

I'd pick the closer one, it's only nursery school after all

I don't drive and do a lot of walking, cycling, and scootering with my 7 year old, including to her school (10 minutes my pace, 20 minutes with her if we're walking). I walk 45-60 minutes myself to get to work or to city centre on a regular basis. I am a big believer in non-car transport!

I would not choose a nursery or school this far away, however, if there were other options. Having a child just makes you so time-poor and is already exhausting; deliberately choosing to double the time it takes you to do the nursery or school run seems really foolish. Don't make your life more difficult for yourself ... but I work full-time and you might feel differently.

DD's nursery is 1 mile away and it absolutely sucks trying to walk home in winter when she's knackered and hungry, its getting dark and it's pissing with rain.

Is it a 40 min walk at child pace, because the distance is only 1.5 miles. 1.5 miles is really not very far. I feel like most of commenters here are responding as if the school is 3-4 miles away with talk of cars and school transport. Sure if it’s at child pace you’d be nearly halving the journey on the return leg.

Most of our village is a mile plus from the local primary because of the river/valley meaning the village is long and thin, with the primary at one end. We’ve been walking back and forth to the primary daily for years as have most of the families we know. I’ve never encountered an issue with sick DC or anything else really. Sure, it likes to unleash torrential downpours at school pick up time but that’s just life!

Ironically, just as we moved to the school end of the village we’ve moved up to secondary so my oldest walks in the opposite direction and has just under a two mile walk to school, for which they allow 40 minutes but that is to allow for small detours calling for friends, going to shops and lockers and generally farting about (plus getting to the actual classroom they need to be in inside the school)

Does she walk everywhere now? I would suggest you do it a there and back with her now and see how it goes.

Sorry haven’t read the whole thread but what will you be doing after you drop her off?

If you are returning home, you will be barely back there on the half day before you have to leave again to pick her up.

Also is it guaranteed that living so far away you will even get a place. I only ask because where I live you wouldn’t. Even living within the catchment there are no guarantees that you will get the days you want - sometimes half days are offered rather than full days.

For me much as I like fresh air and am pretty well organised a 40 minute walk to school with or without a pushchair is not something I would like to do, especially on rainy, cold days.

that's far! We were 10 mins adult pace from nursery and it could take up to 30 mins for the little ones! Buggy for the littlest, pulling scooter for the older one was quite knackering for me.
For me it comes down to - will you be in a rush? Dashing with the kids to nursery and running for the train/bus to work was a nightmare. When we could take our time it was fine but little kids HATE to be rushed. And then add in rain/wind etc. even worse. I used to get to work knackered at 9am as I'd been running around like a headless chicken since 6am!

I did exactly what you are proposing but took the buggy and then finally passed driving test

My 4 year old (4 in April) walks 1.3 miles to school to drop off sister and then another 0.6 miles to her nursery. I don't think it's that bad. She sometimes uses her scooter but seems to get more tired on that.

We leave the house at 8.10/15and get to nursery just after 9.

It's doable for an adult but do you really want to be dragging a child 40 minutes home on a wet, dark, cold winter evening for months on end?

Plus on the half days, what are you going to do after drop off? By the time you get home you'll need to turn around and go back out again!

We leave the house at 8.10/15and get to nursery just after 9 that is quite a late starting nursery tho, ours locks the door at 8.40 so with your distance / timings we'd be leaving at 7.45. I do think when it gets to winter that half hour makes a difference

I would not consider it.

Fine in summer, but in winter? Every day?
So a walk of 40 minutes there and 40 minutes back- but you have to do that twice, onece for drop off, once for pick up also.

That's 3 hous walking a day for you- 15 hours a week.

Fifteen hours a week spent working instead of walking ( even at minimum wage) would earn you £500 a month.
More than enough to run a car.

Don't forget bags etc as well in later years, some days we had school bag, lunch bag, music bag, violin and PE bag on the same day. Thank god they were too young for cookery baskets at that time.

That's a long way for a young child. I remember my son being exhausted when he first started nursery - I'd pick him up on my way back from work and he'd fall asleep in the 5 mins it took to drive home

Sounds miserable, sorry

Fifteen hours a week spent working instead of walking ( even at minimum wage) would earn you £500 a month

You can't just swap one for the other though. Even a 10 minute walk would still be 3 hours 20 minutes a week, so now she's down to less than 9 hours a week work.
And you probably lose the half hour before school you gain as you'd not have time to work so that's another 90 minutes.

So now 10 hours a week, term time only, fit into two long days at nursery and a half day. If only life were that easy.

I don’t think everyone is answering the exact question. It’s not just a 40 minute walk - it’s a commute. The same route, day in day out, twice a day for the child, four times for the adult. That gets boring pretty quickly, you have to do it whether you like it or not. It can’t be compared to an energetic child galloping around a park for an hour at the weekend. The drudgery of a commute, whether by car/bike/bus or on foot, is a pretty big downside for me in my experience.

If there were no alternatives, then sure, it’s not impossible and can be managed. But if there are nearer schools, you need to think very carefully. You can’t compare only the schools themselves, you have to compare based on the experience your child will have at them. So the distant school needs to be sufficiently “better” to outweigh the inconvenience and wasted time of the additional hour a day your child will waste on commuting, compared with a school ten minutes away . If the nearby school is “good enough”, then couldn’t you use that extra hour for all sorts of extra/fun/enriching things?

Not to mention the advantages of friends nearby, etc.

In short, it can be done. But I definitely wouldn’t actively choose it.

I was doing that journey, then swapped my child to a closer, worse, school for convenience. It was making my life a misery.

A bike with a baby seat might be a good option

From someone who did a 10 minute walk to nursery,when it snows/rains its hell never mind 40 mins! I think it's too long on foot.

Commuting really?

For heavens sake it's a walk children should be capable of doing. We have a massive problem of childhood obesity because not only are they fed too much people panic at the thought of them.having to walk more than ten minutes a time.

Think of all the money saved on extra curricular activities to counter act the sitting around on iPads and being driven to school despite being local.

As for all the extra time it takes to walk...well hows it any different to all the many parents who leave the house stupidly early because they want to get one of the few spots outside the school to park and if they leave later they might have to walk five mins to the gates instead of chucking the kids out the car . Even when they live locally.

Kids used to play outside for hours. Walking a fair distance, running around playing climbing trees. Now a walk to school leaves them "too tired" to do anything

That's literally half your day spent doing drop off/pick up
That's the same for alot of people who drive though tbh. They get there. Often late cos they under estimated the time it takes to get ready in the morning. People stand around chatting for a while or take their younger ones to the Park. Take the dogs for a walk before they drive back etc you can be half way home walking before the.locals and the car drivers have finished fading about.

Thats not the same though.If its raining at least you are in a car.Plus even if you are late in a car you would still get there quicker.

For heavens sake it's a walk children should be capable of doing an hours walk after a 40 minutes walk in the morning then 7m5 hours at nursery is a lot to ask of any child. Yes of course your child would have done it in 20 minutes and giggled with joy at the prospect, but in reality 9 hours out the house, much of it on their feet, is entirely different to a day at the park.
And if you're driving then the kid is getting a rest, not been dragged along in howling rain or icey snow

We had a similar walk in the 1980's when I was 5 and my sister was 3. Some days it was good fun but apparently one day my headteacher called my mum into the office and told her it needed to stop because I was falling asleep by lunchtime. We caught the bus after that in the mornings and walked home in the afternoons.

I think maybe get whichever bus that goes up the hill.And that would save you a good bit of time.

You do what you have do do to get the best school for your child. Be prepared, get proper wet gear and walk the route and back before you book her into the school/nursery.

Walking it in the lovely summer days versus dark winter mornings are very very different things.

Start driving lessons as soon as feasible.