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.

I agree with you OP. I also hear there are practical reasons and for some it is totally impossible - so not judging, but I agree that the baseline for most should be kids walking to school is a big family priority and other plans adjusted as far as possible to make that happen. The kids spend so much time in school, they benefit from that physical exercise before and after.

Just because you are working from home doesn't mean you don't have to start at set times. We live about a 30 minute brisk walk from school. I have a 6 year old and a 3 year old. They don't walk briskly, and the 3 year old is currently stubbornly refusing to scoot. At least 2.5 hours of school/nursery run every day is a lot!

Not everyone working from home. Engineer DH has worked at chemical plant throughout as normal.
I teach.
When I have to go to school so do my kids. Not enough time to walk and get to work on time.

My dd starts school at 8.55am i start work at 9.15am and it's a ten minute drive. Not that I need to justify my actions !!

my dd starts school at 8.50 I start in work at 9 I need to drop and run.I have no spare time even if I did to be perfectly frank and prove myself very unpopular I love my car I paid 20 grand for it and I will bloody use it when ever I want!!! If you use public transport by choice fine,If you cycle by choice fine.Good for you if it works for you and your schedual if you choose to drive fine.Personal choice and no one from any camp should be judged for what works best for them and their families.

We have one child at school and one at nursery. Once we have both in the same setting we can walk on days wfh. On days we go to the office we will probably still drive as we drive past anyway and after a long day, picking the kids up at 5pm is easier than adding a 40min walk on.

I do think years ago a lot more people had sahm where as now there are more two working families

When I worked, DS would be dropped off/ picked up by car for wrap around care because time was too tight to walk the 500m there and back at my 3yo's pace. 35 minutes to squeeze in drop off at 8am, stop in at nursery and spend about 7 minutes dropping off the 3yo then drive to work which took 17 minutes if there wasn't a tractor or convoy lights, and run in in the nick of time for my day starting at 8:35. It was tight, stressy and too many margins for error.

Many parents are on tight time pressures and can't afford to walk at the pace of the slowest child.

Since stopping work I haven't driven a from home because I'd end up parked outside next-door-but-one Especially if the weather is dreadful and more drive!
The exception to that is if I'm driving back to the area in time and it's too much bother to drive past the school to park at home and I'll park in the official car park which is about 2/3s of my walk anyway.

I will admit to being mystified by the queue of parents who line the road from 2:30, 45 mins before school ends... with a small catchment, very few live more than a 20 min walk away, and the vast majority within 10 mins. Plus there is good provision of off-road parking anyway.

@Rowanapp

Hmm yes I do understand that people are WFH but have to keep certain hours. We pay for breakfast club for ours though even though I suppose if we drove and WFH my husband could perhaps be back (8.50 is normal drop and he can WFH in normal times). We started with the proposition that we wouldn’t be driving to school though and therefore would need breakfast club for an 8.30 drop off on the days I work. I’m not judging particular parent btw. It’s just I have really noticed a massive increase in traffic since the schools went back and therefore can’t help but conclude that a lot of it is school related. So wondering why, in a densely populated city with lots of schools and where everyone can go to their local school, there would be quite so much school related traffic.

Breakfast clubs are shut here as they are in most places. People have explained to you why they're driving and your response is "yeah, but ..."

I drive my secondary aged child to school because he's autistic and can't get the bus. Is that okay with you?

I’d love to walk my my dc to school. Unfortunately, I also work in a school so the minute I drop them off I have to race across town to get to my own job.

All those saying personal choice. You do realise that your choices affect others. Presumably you followed COVID rules because you didn’t want to harm others by the virus spreading. Air pollution is implicated in around 20000 deaths per year in the UK. Around 1500 people and children die each year after being hit by cars. The car culture in the UK will have to change in the next ten years. I get that they are convenient and quick and I’ve driven in the past (no car atm but wouldn’t rule out in the future) But these personal choices impact on all of us. If you really have no choice don’t feel bad. But if you could do something different I think you should.

Maybe more flexible drop off times in school would ease congestion though as this seems to be a big issue?

@Clymene breakfast clubs are open in my city where I notice the excessive traffic. But I have said all along that I understand for some people unfortunately driving is the only way. I wonder whether there are things schools and local councils could change to help people though as I feel the air pollution is a real problem.

I live an hours walk from school, but 7 min drive. I drop ds at 8:45 and need to be home working at 9am.

I wonder this every time my 2 neighbours jump in the car to drive their kids less than a mile to the primary school that's a nightmare to park near. They definitely don't have the excuse of needing to be back for wfh meetings.

I live five miles from school.

I might be wfh but I still have to be back ready to work

I'm with you OP. Next door neighbour a perfect example. Drives her kids to chook every day. The school is 25 mns walk from us. Same school my three walked every day.

She doesn't work, just comes right back home. She just can't be bothered to walk for 1/2h twice a day!

@Rowanapp what's following Covid rules got to do with it?

BTW on another thread someone's whinging about the increase in cyclists! Is that you they're referring to?

Here, have a and a . You're a far superior parent and person than everyone else. Why can't they all just . . .

Why can't you just mind your own business and crack on? It's none of your business why other adults don't behave just like you.

If you really have no choice don’t feel bad. But if you could do something different I think you should.

Why should anyone feel bad unless you have given them permission not to?

'Car culture', FFS, the car has been here for over a hundred years now. It's not going anywhere.

School run years are behind me thank goodness. But when DC were at First School I would drive them there (6 miles) and then carry on to work ( 20 miles on the motorway-so a bit tricky on a pushbike).

Once they were in more local schools they would walk and I didn't need to be involved.

Surely you do what works for your family though same as anything?

These threads never go well OP, because they always get full of people arguing that they are the exception and have no option but to drive and too often park in front of drives, on blindspots, mounted up pavements, on the yellow school markings, on double yellows because they have places to be and will be quick
The primary schools I walked past on maternity leave had cars backing up 20 minutes to half an hour before pick up time. These were schools that took the vast majority of their children from within the same estate. 🤷‍♀️

The woman over the road drives her two to the primary that is less than 5 mins walk. Probably takes longer to get them into her enormous 4x4 (we are rural TBF). She is always in gym clothes and then often drives past her house to go to the gym. She is not the only one by a long way. This is a small village and nowhere in the village would take longer than a 10 mins walk to get to the school. I'm bemused by it mainly because so many portray their healthy life style all over social media.

Me? I'm overweight and work full-time and do the drop off on the way to work. But. Whenever I finish early or have a day off (rarely) we always walk. We get home roughly the same time (her driving, me walking) and I always resist the urge to point that out!

Bloody odd!

Breakfast club is open here too- but at £5 per day per child many have figured that is too pricy to “enable” the ability to walk to school, walk home, get in car to go to work... etc

There are some (probably a tiny minority) who drive when they have other options, there are many clear explanations on this thread already

We walk, yet it’s a 10 min top walk and I can take calls on my phone if I am running late so can see how it works for me but it may not work for others as school start is now 20 min later than pre-COVID

Mention my own choices because if I didn’t I’d be called a hypocrite. But I’m not expecting medals and gold stars. I’m commenting on others choices precisely because they do affect me. I walk my children past lines of standing traffic, I can smell the exhaust fumes. It affects their health and their developing brains. And my ageing one. I actually make my morning journey ten mins longer as we try to minimise the time on the main road now it is so much busier. So what I am saying is that we as a society have to do better at promoting active travel. Do you disagree?

@Rowanapp

All those saying personal choice. You do realise that your choices affect others. Presumably you followed COVID rules because you didn’t want to harm others by the virus spreading. Air pollution is implicated in around 20000 deaths per year in the UK. Around 1500 people and children die each year after being hit by cars. The car culture in the UK will have to change in the next ten years. I get that they are convenient and quick and I’ve driven in the past (no car atm but wouldn’t rule out in the future) But these personal choices impact on all of us. If you really have no choice don’t feel bad. But if you could do something different I think you should. Maybe more flexible drop off times in school would ease congestion though as this seems to be a big issue?

Hardly anyone has said personal choice.

I have a child who I need to get to school this morning - I then need to be online ready to teach at 9am. I would be cutting it VERY fine to walk (i.e. I'd be home at 9.01), but that is what I was planning to do. Having read this thread, I have decided to drive!

I bet most parents could walk their kids to school but are too lazy
Do you also bet they don't mind being late for work?