AIBU to think that if you can’t drive and park sensibly on the school run, you should be put in the stocks?

[53rdWay]

Okay maybe not put in the stocks. I’d settle for a little light tarring and feathering.

We live near school and walk there and back. I understand not everyone can do this for whatever reason, fine. (I am sure more can than do though.) But FFS I am so tired of the terrible driving we have to dodge on the way!

Every morning there are cars parked blocking pavements, cars in the bus bay holding up the bus drop-offs, cars pulled over on the yellow zig-zags, cars driving on and off pavements while children are walking, cars dashing in to the teachers’ car park to sneakily drop off there without indicating, cars zooming out of side-roads without looking. Then every afternoon it’s the same in reverse.

This all starts about half an hour before dropoff and pickup times as well because people arrive so early. I’ve had to bang on someone’s car window before to wake her up because she was blocking the entire pavement, on a one-pavement road, and had settled down for a nap. Recently there was a fire alarm twenty minutes before pickup, and the fire engine couldn’t get in because of all the people already parked there. Very stern email to all parents from the head about that and... it has made zero difference.

The school asking parents time and time again to be more considerate doesn’t work. The council won’t send out parking wardens so that won’t work. AIBU to think medieval public shaming might be the only way forward?

I agree with the OP as wherever people park they should do so considerately and in accordance with the law.

I also agree with other posters about the misogyny that this type of thread brings out. It's the "mummies" who are still responsible for the vast majority of child rearing and related activities. If the majority of men had to do the school run then they'd be the twats parking on the zig zags.

Very stupidly I live near a school. Never again will I make that mistake. Despite there being yellow lines, zigzags etc parents ignore them and park exactly where they like, stop across mine and my neighbours driveways, on corners, actually on the big corner pavement and anywhere else they want to.
School disco night is even worse. Obviously there are no children coming out then as it's in the evening but there's a total disregard for local residents who might be hoping to park near their own homes. I honestly think nothing will makes these people have any consideration.

This thread gives me life!

I work in Public Sector trying to increase levels of active travel, and its been more than 8yrs of working with schools (& businesses) to encourage parents to leave cars at home, or further away from the school and walk or cycle.

It's mostly thankless, but me and my small team all believe in what we are doing, and it means the world to know there are still many parents out there also fed up with pavement parking etc & wished we could work out how to get the offenders to change their ways.

I've bookmarked to come back and read everyone's comments when I'm low or need some inspiration.

Thanks all. ❤️ and know that there are people like me in most councils trying to enact change too. Ask to see your school's Travel Plan if you want to know what the school is doing & what they have recorded as the current issues.

If the majority of men had to do the school run then they'd be the twats parking on the zig zags

Quite, and men are more dangerous drivers anyway causing more accidents, so it would probably be far worse!

Parking at ds primary school was appalling, the school was on a very steep hill with a children's centre next down the hill which had a nursery, on the opposite side of the road were houses that each had a drop kerb & a drive as had all the houses on the roads around the school. I'm disabled & used to have to be at school by 2.00pm to get somewhere accessible to park when school didn't finish until 3.15pm. I used to bring a travel mug with a hot drink & a book. I regularly used to sit & watch stand up fights between parents & residents of a block of flats block cars in with wheelie bins to prevent them parking in their drive.

I used to work at a school where the head started to put yellow cones on the zig zag lines to stop parking after a child was nearly knocked over. One morning a man dropping his kids off stopped his car and moved the cones so he could park there, and proceded to give a moutful of abuse to staff who challenged him. At the same school the bus company who took the children on trips, swimming etc refused to park in the carpark because their drivers had been verbally abused by parents for parking, in a COACH BAY!

The headteacher of my local primary is forever pleading on the schools social media pages for parents to park responsibly and with consideration for local residents and other road users. However the parents dont take a blind bit of notice!

Schools do try. Others in our area have introduced things like walk to school week and eco house points for pupils who walk in and even walking buses but once again nothing works. There is something about school run parents that is so very entitled and that lack consideration for other people.

So shearwater there is a car park right opposite the school where people can park. So, yes, if you don’t mind me pointing out that this is not the same as what people who live on same road or opposite school where there is no parking lot available are taking issue with. If people took the time to parked legally (if not just considerately) this thread probably would not exist.

Glad that your school got it sorted though.

I think it IS more mummies... but only because mummies tend to be the ones doing school run. If the school run was 50/50 male/female, the ratio of CFs who block driveways/school paths etc would also be 50/50.

I also am constantly surprised that local councils don't make more effort on this. we have two parking lots close to school. They do both require payment and a short walk - 3 minutes or so. But the combination of having to pay (30p) and was 3 minutes means a lot of people refuse to use them. The council ticket guy is down at the car parks at 9am every day so that any parent who doesn't have cash will get a fine, but I've never seen one on the actual road the school is on where there are a million cars parked illegally and unsafely.

This thread has inspired me. Maybe I'll write to our local council and suggest they start sending their traffic wardens to the school FIRST. Then to the car park.

Our school is beside a church with a generous car park. It’s as close to the school to park in the car park as along the road. But the access road to the car park gets narrowed to a single lane of chicken on a blind bend so people won’t use the car park because it’s too hard to get in and out of

It’s about 60:40 mums:dads here and ime at least the mums mostly give way and drive tentatively around the children; the dads drive bulldozers.

So, yes, if you don’t mind me pointing out that this is not the same as what people who live on same road or opposite school where there is no parking lot available are taking issue with

It is part of the same issue as people were finding residential streets to park on instead of using the free car park as there were no spaces in the car park. And some of those were parking inconsiderately. So sorting out the car park meant there was a lot less need for parents to park anywhere else.

Also schools can help by running before and after school clubs/childcare and staggering finishing times so that not everyone is arriving at the same time.

I work in Public Sector trying to increase levels of active travel, and its been more than 8yrs of working with schools (& businesses) to encourage parents to leave cars at home, or further away from the school and walk or cycle

It's often a much wider issue though as I pointed out. There are things schools and parents can do, but it's also to do with where people work and how they get there.

Our council's policy is so different on public transport is so different from neighbouring London as to be laughable. Buses are expensive and infrequent as opposed to frequent and cheap. People often have little alternative but to drive. Parents pay for an annual bus pass for kids (unlike in London where they travel free) and kids can't even use it in the school holidays.

People often have little alternative but to drive. Parents pay for an annual bus pass for kids (unlike in London where they travel free) and kids can't even use it in the school holidays.

I think it's an important point that Londoners just don't get. If you have a couple of kids, then even if there's a bus to get them to school, the pricing is exorbitant - several hundred pounds per year term time only. It makes more sense for parents to drive them as it's far cheaper. If there's no bus, which is often the case, or if it's just an hourly bus service, that's another reason to drive them.

In the city I live near, people who are working in the city enrol their kids in primary and secondary schools in the city itself, even when they live in towns or villages nearby, just so that they can drop off/pick up their kids enroute to/from work. It's meaning that village and town schools are under-subscribed and closing. That's all down to poor public transport and stupid councils imposing one way systems that cause gridlock. Not to mention schools that won't open their doors before 8.45 in the morning!

There's a lot more to the problem that calling lazy parents, but yes, there are also a lot of lazy parents. But the answer is more flexibility on all sides, including schools, employers, public transport etc.

Also schools can help by running before and after school clubs/childcare and staggering finishing times so that not everyone is arriving at the same time.

This would make a massive beneficial difference. Secondaries already do after school clubs etc., but both primaries and secondaries could do a lot to help the morning congestion. At our village primary, it's chaos because they don't even open the school gates until 8.45 and registration is 8.55, so there's just a 10 minute window for 300 kids to go in, which inevitably causes gridlock in the village. Even something simple like opening the gates at 8.30 would make a massive difference, but the school always has an excuse not to.

If parents cannot get to school in time to park safely then they need to think of an alternative. Our school offers a breakfast club, after school clubs and has a car park but once again today someone was parked over the dropped kerb of the crossing because they were late picking their child up and it was raining.

Our village has enough parking, just not enough directly outside the school. I think with all the cheap public transport, free parking, before and after school care in the world there are still too many selfish arses who park on zigzags, corners and crossings because they don't give a shit about anyone else's safety- just that little Jimmy doesn't get rained on.

Schools round here don't have car parks and you can't stop in the road to drop kids off. Parents have to walk their children or pay for childminders to do it.
The roads are narrow and residents permits only.
The traffic wardens make a fortune for the council.
It's funny seeing irate parents, like the world owes them a parking space to drop kids off.
It is dangerous, I saw a woman dragged from her car and beaten quite badly as she ran over a child and drove round the crossing patrol.
Unfortunately for her there were speed bumps. She was kicked and stamped on quite badly, but learned her lesson.
When asked nobody saw anything. The child did make a recovery but was quite bad for a while.
There should be a sign, your job is not as important as a child's life.

Our school has just revamped the car park so now it includes a kiss and drop.

And whilst I realise that many schools were built before we were do reliant on cars I really think that some decent planning could have eased a lot of these problems - a pp mentioned school refusing to open the gates 10 minutes early.

Plus many schools wont even let the kids walk alone until theyre in y6 so parents have little option but to accompany their kids, whereas previously most kids got themselves to school.

The council ticket guy is down at the car parks at 9am every day so that any parent who doesn't have cash will get a fine, but I've never seen one on the actual road the school is on where there are a million cars parked illegally and unsafely

You see, this is why I just don't understand why they don't go to the school first. Instead of checking every car in the car park they'd get a whole load of instant "hits" with illegally parked cars and could still move over to the car park later

Then again, IME common sense doesn't often come into it with Council decisions ...

We have a huge car park less that 1/4 of a mile away from the local primary. It is on the same side of the street with a pavement leading up to the school no road crossing to do....does it get used on the school run?? Does it fuck!!! It seems that parking by the school gates. across people's driveways and on blind bends is better than making their little darlings walk just that little distance.

If it's of any help to anyone, the letter sent by the HT to parents that seemed to get the most traction was along the following lines.

She basically reminded everyone that when they joined the school, pupils and parents had agreed to support the schools values.

Simple things like being kind to each other, caring about the environment and local community, keeping yourself and others safe.

She then went on to say (I paraphrase) that parking across a driveway wasn't kind, keeping your car running for 15 mins wasn't respecting the environment or local community, blocking pavements or the yellow lines was not keeping others safe, rather it was actively putting them in danger.

Then finished up saying that those parents who behave in such a manner undermine the values of the school and its ability to impart them to all pupils.

If parents don't set an example (not just through their own behaviour but also censuring it when they see others behave thus) and demonstrate their commitment to such simple expectations then why should any of the pupils.

Letter ended along the lines that such behaviour was not acceptable and pointed out all the alternatives on offer (walking bus, local parking etc) that also showed it was also unnecessary and simply down to laziness/entitlement.

As per my pp - she just did a really good job of making it socially unacceptable, shameful behaviour.

It's the amount of mums (and dads) that have a massive 4×4 and one or two kids that puzzles me. It's usually their second car as well. I mean they are literally the same size inside as a hatchback (5 seats) but have massive engines and are so bulky. Insecurity I think, 'look at me!'

I live very close to a school. There is some utterly godlike driving and parking in a daily basis. Council parking wardens and the pcso's are frequent visitors now as it's flipping ridiculous.

How there hasn't been a serious accident is a miracle.

Here there’s an infant, junior and secondary school all practically on top of each other. Parking is a nightmare. I’d say mums and dads are about as bad as each other.

It does seem to be the parents of the secondary school kids that park badly as close to the school as they can. (In theory barring any SN these kids are perfectly capable of walking 5 minutes to meet their lift further away)

I park in a side road that runs parallel to the infant school road 3-4 minute walk if that.

I work in a school... It's a nightmare.

However opening the gates early means staff have to supervise once children are on the school site. We can't afford it. We'd have to start our TAs earlier and they wouldn't have time to talk to the teacher before school about the day's lessons.

I personally spend about 2 hours a week supervising parking and drop off and pick up. It's me and two other staff members. We're very senior to try and give the message that we take it very seriously. The junior staff and support staff just get ignored.

It's a massive waste of time just because everyone thinks the rules about safety don't apply to them.

www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/frustrated-school-head-uses-pupils-3428128

No point emails to parents.

Report to the police with evidence if the law in any way has been broken. If you feel a parent has in any way jeopardised the health of their child by their actions, it's a safeguarding issue and report to social services.