Walking vs driving kids to school

[OpportunityKnocks]

I've seen a few rants about traffic on local Facebook pages.

Every single time there is someone who says 'well, if the parents walked their children the half mile to school then we wouldn't have this problem' with an inference that parents are lazy.

Well, actually, people usually drive because it is quicker, just like they drive to work because it's quicker than walking or public transport.

Parents, like the rest of the population have stuff to do. It wound me up because a lot of comments were targeted at parents that don't work. I'm currently on mat leave and drive DS to/from preschool. I have other reasons why I drive him aside from time, but that's irrelevant. Why is my time any less valuable than someone who has to go to work? That half a mile is a 40 minute round trip walking vs a 20 minute round trip driving.

So AIBU to call these people out on blaming parents for traffic?

Oh just realised I've misread the op, a 40 minute round trip not 40 mins just to get there or get back. Well, that's a 20 minute walk each way... Is that really so bad?!

@Selfsettling3 I'm not sure. I didn't think he was walking particularly fast tbh. He's 3.5, maybe he's just quite fast? I didn't think it was unusual though.

REALLY? You are a parent, up to you to take up with the school

I have! Several times. Along with pretty much every other parent at the school

But that’s the rule, if we don’t like it we are free to send our children to another school - except they all have the same rule

I drive on the days I drop at breakfast club and head straight to work as there isn't enough time for me to drop at breakfast club and walk back home, get the car and get to work on time. But the day I work from home I walk with them because it's the sensible thing to do and parking is a nightmare

Oh and he likes to run sometimes so that speeds it up obviously

This thread is so bizarre!

A significant proportion of people responding don't seem to have clocked that it takes the OP 40 minutes to do the round trip, not 40 minutes to walk one way (I agree 15/25 mins is quite long for half a mile, although OP has said it may be slightly longer). I still think OP is being unreasonable, but I suspect she is deeply irritated by having to point this out every few posts, and people still don't seem to have got it.

Then, OP keeps saying that her time is just as valuable as the time of someone who works. But it's not about how valuable your time is! There's an obvious difference between a working parent who can only get to their workplace on time if they drive and drop their child, and a SAHP who can choose when in the day to schedule their baby classes/coffee mornings/household tasks. If the working parent is consistently late, they will be disciplined and ultimately sacked and the household will lose their income. That will not happen in the case of the SAHP. Surely this is blindingly obvious?

I am very lucky (as a working parent) to live a five minute walk from my kids' school, which is in the same direction as the tube station. Before they started there, I used to take my eldest to nursery with my youngest in a buggy, when I was on maternity leave. I've just checked on googlemaps and the nursery was exactly 0.5 miles away. Eldest scooted/stood on buggy board. It took us 15 mins to get there (several road crossings on the way, one with timed traffic lights). I think we drove twice and that was when it was lashing down with rain - and we could have resolved that with better rain gear. Everyone's different I know, but to me walking to and from nursery was a valuable use of time. I got to talk about things with my son; look at new flowers or animals; I got to exercise too and the baby got out and about and a bit of fresh air. I thought that was just as important as a baby class or meeting friends and it really didn't take much longer than driving would have done. Plus of course it was hugely better for the environment. I do think we have become so accustomed to using cars for very short trips that people see gentle pressure to use them less as an assault on their personal freedom. It's just one example of why turning our current trajectory towards climate disaster around is going to be really, really hard.

We live 3 blocks from my 6 year olds school and we walk, scooter or run and race each other home.
It literally takes longer to strap everyone into the car go around the blocks and wait in the drop off line than it takes to walk with a 3 and 6 year old. But still parents in my street drive.

Parents start lining up for afternoon pick up at 2.30pm when school doesn’t finish till 3.10 and the car park pick up doesn’t start till 3.35. It’s madness.

Pouring rain is when my kids like walking to school the most.
Boots and rain gear (coats and rain pants) (school shoes and spare socks in her bag which I waterproofed) then they can jump in as many puddles and shake as many trees on each other as they like.

I walk, it's 0.8 miles, takes ten minutes. My neighbour two houses down from me drives, most often I beat her or she beats me by about 20 seconds. The faff of parking around school definitely puts me off

I do agree if possible parents should be able to walk to school but unfortunately a lot of parents have to drive to their children to school. I for one have to drive my son to school. We live 12.6 miles from my front door to the school gate so we have no option. BUT I do not park dangerously around the school or blocking people’s drives. I park as close as I can in a safe place.

Makes you wonder we all managed in the 70s/80s when 2 car families were unheard of and many families didn't have a car at all. Contrary to popular thought they didn't all have a SAHM.

We also walk on 43 degree days since it’s 10 minutes.
It just involves eating ice blocks from a freezer cold bag on the way home and spraying each other with water pistols.

As kids we either took the school bus (country school) and cycled 14km for high school.

Makes you wonder we all managed in the 70s/80s when 2 car families were unheard of and many families didn't have a car at all

I would imagine in the 70s/80s you were much more likely to get into your catchment school!

I would imagine in the 70s/80s you were much more likely to get into your catchment school!

but we are talking about people who are within a (usually very strict) catchment, not the families who live in rural areas without even safe road side walking.

but we are talking about people who are within a (usually very strict) catchment, not the families who live in rural areas without even safe road side walking

But it is an issue for us (and others!) and was responding to the "how we all managed". I'm not saying it is a massive issue throughout the country but certainly in our LEA, the year we didn't get our first choice (or indeed any of our choices!) only 66% of people got a place at their first choice school.

I would be really interested to see stats going back 30 years on the difference in average travel distances to schools.

Just anecdotally though: -

Friend of mine lives easy walking distance from school A, we live easy walking distance from School B. We are 0.6 miles from school B. They are 2.4 miles from School B.

Our children are "indential" in terms of school year, no additional needs, no LAC, same school year. Mum simply "preferred" School B and got it for their child. We didn't.

So for primary they drove every year to School B, rather than walk to their nearest school. We had to drive every day to school for DD.

It is incredibly frustrating.

As others have pointed out, walking is not just dead time. There are many benefits other than just getting to your destination - fresh air, exercise, and being outdoors (even in inclement weather) are good for mental and physical health and using travel time for these purposes is killing two birds with one stone.

Driving is dead time. Perhaps for a long drive it can also be used for listening to music or an audio book, but at such short distances it's just a chore.

Why don't you just give it a go, OP. Try it for a week. Or just a couple of days a week for a few weeks. A scooter or a bike for a dawdling child will allow you to go at a brisk pace.

I'll add quality time. It's time you have to talk to each other, even at a young age. It can be about anything.

And the walk back can be great to make friendships too.

I went to a very small rural primary school and everyone got the bus then. It was quite rare for anyone to be driven to school and the single lane it was on used to get blocked in even mild traffic. My nephew went there until last year and apparently it's now utter carnage, people just stop in the middle of the lane and get their kids. I suppose the bus relies on someone being home for little kids though.

Driving causes air pollution & climate change.

We should all avoid personal car use wherever we can, not least because it is good for children to have as much physical exercise as possible.

If you're driving, and adding to traffic, air pollution and climate change, all to save twenty minutes then yes YABU and lazy.

Mind you, lots of us were latch key kids from an early age then. That wouldn't go down well on Mumsnet...

@JosefKeller

School catchments I have found personally are not ‘scrict’ anymore. We live in a London Borough with schools all around I didn’t get any of my local schools even though I could see one from my kitchen window! We were offered a school 12.6 miles away. Think you can guess how many schools I pass on the way to my allocated school! 😤
I will also add we are not just a ‘one off case’ there are 3 other children in my child’s class alone who also didn’t get their local school Or any of their 6 choices.

I just checked the distance to our school 0.6 mile. Takes 15 mins to walk with the dc. On my own I can do it in 10. So I allocate a half hour for the round trip.

To drive to our school takes 5-8 mins (depending on parking), so we usually walk, unless I have to be early for work.

I think if you’re a sahm or on mat leave you should walk to be honest. Much healthier and the dc are always more happier I’ve found.

I will also add we are not just a ‘one off case’ there are 3 other children in my child’s class alone who also didn’t get their local school Or any of their 6 choices

It can also happen when the council still stick to the ridiculous "priority to siblings" rule above anything else - as opposed to "priority to siblings WITHIN CATCHMENT". It means that parent got their 1st choice for 1st child, then move, but have guaranteed place for the others. Some councils have removed that rule.

Anyway, there are still plenty of parents who could perfectly walk. I do feel very sorry for the children, it can't be fun the day you have to walk for a few hours when you have never been anywhere than you car seat. Some kids genuinely struggle on trips. It's not healthy.

I'm beaten.

How is it taking you 40 mins to walk a mile? I could do a mile uphill in 25 with a kid in tow...