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.

So what I am saying is that we as a society have to do better at promoting active travel

As with all things it doesn't work for everyone and their circumstances. In an ideal world there would be no cars and everyone would be walking/cycling everywhere but this doesn't work for people for so many reasons. Do you disagree?

There is also a woman who I think is lovely and I respect, but she has the most annoying habit. She has to drive as doesn't live in the village. But she always arrives a few minutes after most and she by passes all the parked cars and parks directly opposite the school gate (meaning the taxi can't get in or out of the school carpark without a 10 point turn) blocking someone's drive! Every bloody day. Surely you wouldn't do this in any other situation?!

Do you not need to leave soon OP...to walk your kids to school or something? Wouldn’t want them to be late because you’re so busy preaching on here.

I can never understand why people think that the way others transport their children to school is anyone else’s business.

You say it has an impact on others as if that makes a difference, it doesn’t. Cyclists and horse riders and tractors have an impact on my journey to work every day, but as much as the selfish cyclists irritate me, I’m not entitled enough to think that strangers should go out of their way to make my day a little better.

You do you OP, and stop judging other people for choices you have no idea about.

The school run is 20 mins each way for me on foot. I drop off at 8.50 but need to be logged on for a daily meeting at 9.00 so if I did the school run I’d be late. Lots of people work 9-5 and with school drop offs anywhere between 8.30 and 9 it’s not doable, it’s not rocket science.

None of your business tbh. Lovely stealth boast about how you're a superior parent

The staggering of start times isn't helping - the traffic is around for longer rather than a short busy burst. I walk in the mornings but need to pick up after work in the afternoons and have no time to drop the car at home first.

Dd school is half an hour away, and we do walk sometimes. Unfortunately I work an hour away now so drop her first quite regularly. Ds school isn45 mins away and he walks, as will dd next year. Not everyone works from home!

I would love for my secondary school aged child to be able to walk to and from school. They would love to be able to as well but their body just won't let them. We and school are doing as much as we can and on a really good day they manage to walk home. So sorry that their disability is inconveniencing you in the mornings.

I currently drop one child at 8.50 and the other at 9.15... the later drop off child reads to me, and then we read together in the car. (Engine off!) We aren't allowed on school grounds between those times (not actually allowed on school grounds at all for the elder child in Yr5).

School has complained about parents hanging around on the pavements outside the school between drop offs.....

DD gets a public bus to school. She’s just texted to say it’s so crowded she has to stand. Massive covid risk. She won’t be getting that again, we’ll be driving her.

OK, so obviously people who live an hour away - this post is not aimed at you! But there are far too many people who use their cars when it is not needed. My neighbour takes her son to school by car and then drives back home every day. I walk. I actually often get there before her because of the one-way system. And no, she hasn't got any disability - she's just lazy - her words!

I used to walk my children to school (20 minutes) pre covid times. Since covid, the children both start and end school at different times. When it's cold and raining, the last thing I want to do is wait another 20 minutes for my last child to go in. However when it gets warmer (and dryer) We will start walking again.

It takes me about 10-15 mins to drive the kids to school and about 30 minute if they take the tube (it's quite a long walk from the station). They usually take the tube as it saves me taking them and it's helpful keeping cars off the roads.

But their cricket bags are stupidly large and heavy so I confess that I take them on those days.

I have three ks1 children, including a 4 year old with asd. Our school is a 30 minute walk (according to Google, would probably take over an hour with my children). The journey is almost entirely along a 60 mile hour road with one fairly narrow pavement.

I'll keep driving thanks.

Well done on being better than everyone else though.

in a densely populated city why not just send your kids to a school within a few miles and let them walk

This is very simplistic. All schools within a few miles will automatically have loads of spaces and not be oversubscribed in this parallel perfect universe presumably?

@Rowanapp

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?

No, no I don't. I'm not your 'we'. You crack on and do as you like. Others will do the same.

I am meant to work 9-5 (more like 9-8 at the moment, 11pm yesterday). I do 3 days at work (furthest location 30 mins drive away) and at home 2 days a week. Have done for over a year now.

DD now back at primary school 2 miles away (uphill). She can’t go into school before 8:45am and is too young to walk alone.

I don’t have a time machine.

Work are flexible about start time, which would be great if the after school club hadn’t closed permanently in October and DD needs picking up at 3:10. So I get to work late 3x a week and have to leave by 2:30 to collect her.

Am I missing some magic solution?!

In my area, you can thank the LTNs for that. They've pushed more traffic onto bigger roads and then on those bigger roads they've taken lanes away for dedicated cycle lanes that I rarely see cyclists in (still amongst the traffic). If you have to walk along those main roads, then yes it will affect you.

I drive to work because I've always worked outside of the home and don't work nearby. It's a nightmare when roads have been closed off that would make a 20 minute journey a 5 minute one. But hey ho.

Often living far from schools and work is a lifestyle choice that can be changed

in a densely populated city why not just send your kids to a school within a few miles and let them walk

Because it might be oversubscribed, it might be a shit school, it might be where their child was bullied and had to move schools, all sorts of reason that are no one's business.

@Macncheeseballs

Often living far from schools and work is a lifestyle choice that can be changed

Funny how it's a choice when the topic is cars but when it's complaining about neighbours in terraced housing, people can't just magically move

@Macncheeseballs

Often living far from schools and work is a lifestyle choice that can be changed

😂😂😂

Sure it is! No one works in a city with sky high housing costs and had to move farther out just to be able to rent something at all.

Or we could change to a system where you have to go to your catchment school, which can magically change size to accommodate the ever changing size of the local child population...and you have to move schools if you move house out of catchment (poor renters!)

There isnt a perfect magical solution. I would prefer my children to attend the nearest school. But it's full.

@LolaSmiles

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. 🤷‍♀️

Yep, everyone on Mumsnet always has a very VERY good reason for driving. And yet, my local schools are like yours - lots of kids living very near the school, lots of parents parked up ages before the school gets out, plus always more cars when it’s raining, which suggests it’s likely not a logistical must-drop-on-way-to-work issue.

Those parents don’t ever seem to post here though.