About driving kids to school

[Rowanapp]

So I walk the kids to school, and then cycle to work. Now secondary schools are back the traffic is awful again. I hate the fumes and worry about my kids developing lungs and brains being exposed to them. Why is the traffic so bad? Key workers presumably have always been driving to work. Everyone else still WFH. I always thought parents needed to drive due to needing to go on to work but that can’t be the case it must be parents driving children to school. I live 1.1 miles from school and up quite a big hill but mine have walked from starting at 4, or scooted (but I worry about scooter because of the traffic and now are good on bikes but I can’t cycle on the road with them because of the traffic)
Why can’t these children walk? I get some rural kids can’t but in a densely populated city why not just send your kids to a school within a few miles and let them walk. It’s good for their mental health and learning and physical inactivity is a far bigger killer than covid. Obviously some children have disabilities and specific challenges but honestly when did we become like this that most kids are thought incapable of walking a couple of miles a day.

There people who have to drive their children to school for various reasons. There are plenty who don't have to drive their children and who just can't be arsed to walk
Well summarised.

So many judgey people on this thread. I'm a teacher so I'm on site. I drop DS at breakfast club on my WAY to work. On my one day off I also drive him (1 mile only) most of the time as he's epileptic and has adhd and asd. That okay with you OP and the rest of the judgey posters?

@Macncheeseballs

Dynamokev, i agree with rowanapp, the figures dont really make a difference, the death toll is unacceptable

So it's not important to be quoting the right figures to back up your argument? OK then.

A lot of people are so lazy now they barely walk anywhere!

@VicarofDibley

2hr walk each way to my DC"s secondary and that including narrow country roads and working so me and DH and another set of parents who we are good friends because our DC is best friends with their DC we share the school run .They are in the same form so same bubble that way we are not both travelling at once .

Surely the Local Authority should provide a bus? Our village is 5 miles from the secondary school. The LA education department provide buses that take 50 children at a time.

So many judgey people on this thread. I'm a teacher so I'm on site. I drop DS at breakfast club on my WAY to work. On my one day off I also drive him (1 mile only) most of the time as he's epileptic and has adhd and asd. That okay with you OP and the rest of the judgey posters?

Surely you recognise that your case is not typical? Most people, including children, are perfectly capable of walking but choose not to. It's no coincidence we're such a fat nation, is it?

Eldest DS now rides his bike to school on his own previously in primary I drove him. His Sister now in year 3 is driven because she wouldn’t walk due to health problems.
Now I have a baby and a disabled daughter she will be driven to school.

I have just been talking to my neighbour about this. Leaving aside people who need to drive due to work, distance, disabilities, lack of pavements etc - there are still people around who seem to think that walking anywhere is just peculiar and almost child abuse! It's fresh air and exercise and a taste of independence when they're 10+. One of the weirdest things about wfh after a lifetime of commuting is not getting that burst of exercise before starting work.

If the people who didn't need to drive their children to school didn't, it wouldn't be such a problem. The ones who drive their children when they don't need to aren't going to come on threads like this and admit they actually want an extra half an hour in bed.

We have a friend who will drive her son to school in September when he goes to year 7 because at 11 he is far too young to get the school bus, 3 miles down the road with friends. This is going from a leafy village directly to a school in a small town. She doesn't need to drive him but she feels she does. (And she often shares posts about saving the planet on FB)

I also agree that children should be encouraged to walk alone from earlier. Our school won't allow it until Year 6. I'm not sure they could police it in the mornings, but they absolutely can in the afternoon as they won't release a child unless they can see a parent. We quite often collect DS then he walks home alone because he loves to do it, it's good exercise and we believe that increased independence is good for children. But we don't always have time/energy/inclination to walk with DD too.

But it annoys me that I have to stand around waiting for him after DD comes out first. In non Covid days I'd probably just ask a friend to "collect" him and send him on his way, but obviously can't do that currently. He's already looking forward to Year 6 and I'm struggling to get him to understand he won't be able to walk from Day 1 as I have to sign bloody forms at the school in the first week before he'll be released without me!

@NerrSnerr

If the people who didn't need to drive their children to school didn't, it wouldn't be such a problem. The ones who drive their children when they don't need to aren't going to come on threads like this and admit they actually want an extra half an hour in bed.

We have a friend who will drive her son to school in September when he goes to year 7 because at 11 he is far too young to get the school bus, 3 miles down the road with friends. This is going from a leafy village directly to a school in a small town. She doesn't need to drive him but she feels she does. (And she often shares posts about saving the planet on FB)

Actually quite a few people did admit this. Including me (although in my case it was that I think I said the walk is tortuous and unpleasant, especially when weather isn't great and I don't like doing it). Walking is definitely better but in most cases, the additional stress and time it takes is just something I don't want to have to deal with. I could but I choose not to.

My local high school has a lot of parents who drive to pick up and drop off their children; the roads and pavements around the school are clogged with cars at school run times. It's not a rural school and doesn't have a particularly big catchment area. If people really do need to drive, I wish they could at least park away from the yellow lines and zigzags and switch their engines off whilst waiting.

I live a mile away from school and some days we drive. 3 days a week I have to take the 3 year old to nursery straight after and it's not a walkable distance so I drive to school, drop the 5 year old off then get back in the car for nursery. After school on those days we walk back home to get the car to go get the smallest one.

Some days it's raining and I don't want to get wet, some days I'm lazy, some days I have other stuff to do straight after so I need the car.

I do walk as much as possible, it's exercise for us all, get fresh air and I save on petrol but it's so much easier to drive so I can see why people do when they don't technically need to.

Why do senior school kids want to be ferried around by mummy and daddy? In my day - which is admittedly over 20 years ago now - it would have been the height of embarrassment and evidence of being treated like a baby! I'm obviously alluding to urban/suburban schools or those that are short distances before anyone pipes up about rural buses that only come once every decade.

Because it’s a 3 hour walk for us and I work near my children’s school so I’m driving anyway.

My secondary age DD gets 2 buses to school (we live about 6 miles away). But in light of recent events in the news bringing the safety of women and girls into the forefront of my mind, I'm almost tempted to start driving her.

If I set off in 1 min I could walk to school.
Or I can sit on my arse for another 9 mins and drive the half a mile in 2 mins.

I would like to travel by horse. I’d enjoy a commute on horseback. So would the horse. And so would my kid. But then I’d still be in trouble for my mode of transport leaving ‘skidders’ on the road that was sending cyclists flying off into the undergrowth.

As you were.

@NormanStangerson your DC could arrive at school to the sound of powerful thrumming hooves and their auburn hair blowing in the wind like Clarissa and Bill in Malory Towers. With their seven brothers.

In general this thread has gone a bit fighty. Commuting is a good example of an opportunity to 'build back better' after the pandemic. Schools starting at the same time as work, and everyone chugging off to work 9-5, is just silly if we want to live more sustainable lives - there are better ways to incentivise people to move about.

@Twinkie01

Sometimes we walk, sometimes I drive, sometimes DD has got her arse in gear and we have time to walk, sometimes she hasn't and it's a rush. I pay road tax, I have every right to use my car for which ever journeys I choose.

Road tax was abolished in 1937.