Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Hate the school run

217 replies

CandyFIosss · 06/09/2021 00:05

Does anyone else hate the school run? I honestly dread it, I hate it and if I never had to do it again I would be happy, it seem unusual though and most parents seem to love it! Does anyone else hate it?

OP posts:
Popcornbetty · 06/09/2021 10:15

'What I hated the most was the slow walkers. The groups of parents with the prams who take up the whole path. Especially when it's soaking and saying excuse me takes them 5 minutes to sort out an opening for us to get through, so it was easier to skip through the soggy mud. If I was getting there just on time, then they were most definitely going to be late. Why so god damn slow then?! I will not miss that and the path rage it gave me.'

@TheChip yes the path rage, that did make me giggle! I am finding that annoys me even now and my oldest is just about to start full days so god help me over the next decade! The last time i managed to side step a group of them and hotfoot it past on the muddy grass i heard one of them say to the other 'no need to rush!' Hmm

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 06/09/2021 10:19

I like it but only because

  1. Its soft drop off at any of the gates so I dont need to queue or mix with anyone
  2. It's the only walks I do weekdays as wfh
  3. Pick up is also at the gate by classes in a line so if I must talk it's only ever to the person queueing next to me
Sugarplum06 · 06/09/2021 10:20

I hate the school run with a passion, counting down the years till I never have to do it again already 😊

hopeishere · 06/09/2021 10:20

No never hated it. Was generally running on to work so no time to linger. Used after schools club so no pick up angst either! I made a few good friends from kids school.

LittleMysSister · 06/09/2021 10:33

I never walked to school on my own/with other kids at primary, but I'm sure my mum just used to walk me and my sister into the playground when we were younger, or just to the gates when we were in juniors.

Never had to deliver each child to each classroom, is that how is it now?!

Original poster
CandyFIosss · 06/09/2021 10:38

I’m sure all school are different but yes mine has to be taken to each class, and it means walking round the entire school, also collection at each point and can wait up to 10 mins for each child to come out of class.

OP posts:
LittleMysSister · 06/09/2021 10:42

@CandyFIosss

I’m sure all school are different but yes mine has to be taken to each class, and it means walking round the entire school, also collection at each point and can wait up to 10 mins for each child to come out of class.
What a pain, no wonder you hate it!!

FWIW I know I would hate it too.

Mol1628 · 06/09/2021 11:09

I hate it.

We walk it’s only 10/15 minutes but roads and paths are busy and noisy and I just find it all a bit too much. Definitely not a nice relaxing walk with the children as I am constantly watching out for bikes and scooters and now bloody e scooters flying round corners.

Popcornbetty · 06/09/2021 11:10

@LittleMysSister in my dcs school different year groups go in different doors and you have to take them to the correct area. The little ones you take to their specific class and this means walking right the way around.

Icantrememberthenameoftheartis · 06/09/2021 11:10

I loathe it and I’m only a year in with two who haven’t even started school yet! I hate the restriction of having to be there at 3pm too. It’s the middle of the afternoon so wherever you are whatever you’re doing has to be cut short. I absolutely hate it!

LittleMysSister · 06/09/2021 11:45

[quote Popcornbetty]@LittleMysSister in my dcs school different year groups go in different doors and you have to take them to the correct area. The little ones you take to their specific class and this means walking right the way around.[/quote]
Wow, so much more complicated than when I was at school and I'm not even that old!

I have always just assumed parents still drop-off and pick up at the gates Blush.

Original poster
CandyFIosss · 06/09/2021 11:47

How would picking up at the gates work? My kids school don’t let them out unless they physically see you collecting them?

OP posts:
Popcornbetty · 06/09/2021 11:48

I wish it was that easy, i got lost on ds's first day Blush ended up going around the blooming school twice!

Popcornbetty · 06/09/2021 11:49

Yeah i agree it is a safety thing.

huuskymam · 06/09/2021 11:49

I don't mind it now that I don't have to get out of the car. I drop and run before the crowd gathers. Dh does the pick up.

LittleMysSister · 06/09/2021 11:57

@CandyFIosss

How would picking up at the gates work? My kids school don’t let them out unless they physically see you collecting them?
I guess it wouldn't if that's the rules nowadays, I just assumed it was still like when I was at school where everyone yr 3 and over just left their classrooms and went to the gates to meet their parents. Teacher didn't even go with us I don't think?!

Infants used to get walked with their teacher to the gates and I think they probably weren't allowed out of them until they could go straight to a parent.

BastardMonkfish · 06/09/2021 11:59

There's no phone signal at DS school so waiting at pick up is a bit shit!

DrunkenKoala · 06/09/2021 12:56

I enjoy our school run. It’s about 20 minutes and it’s through a park which (weather permitting) we’ll stop in on the way home for about 20 mins. Our school has two gates that open straight onto a narrow pavement which can get very overcrowded, we have to walk through that to get to a 3rd gate round the corner so now we wait until it’s thinned out and walk round (there’s a 10 minute window in which all the gates are open so luckily we’re not late). Most of our parents are a good bunch, there’s the odd few who seem to stand in the way of others and then take umbrage when you say excuse me and ask to get past them.

I hated it a few years ago. DD was still in the pushchair so it was already difficult trying to navigate our way around at times and then a parent of a child in DS’s class homed in on me. She’d stand in front of the pushchair just talking at me about herself, her DC or bitching about the teachers/school. I’d try walking off and she’d walk along side me leaving no space for anyone coming in the opposite direction, if I did manage to get her to walk in front she’d keep stopping suddenly, one day I had to shout at her to keep walking as she was holding loads of people up. Of an afternoon DS would be walking next to me holding the pushchair and she’d step in front of him almost pushing him back so she could walk next to me. I had to tell her that he’s walking next to me and I was talking to him. At the beginning of the next school year the classes were mixed up and our children were no longer together and she dropped me like a hot potato. I didn’t realise how much of an affect she was having on me until the start of the new year and the school run was a breeze for me.

MarieIVanArkleStinks · 06/09/2021 13:23

I'd hate it if mine were as onerous as yours sounds, OP, with the uncomfortable bus journey then the various drop-off points around the school. That sounds enough to start your day off with a real headache. For me, on days where I have a meeting or scheduled session, especially as I have a long commute, it can feel like a bind, but overall my school drop-off is a lot less arduous. DH and I alternate drop offs depending on work commitments. We're a five-minute walk from the school so I don't have to do battle for parking spaces, and it's a nice relaxing walk listening to DC's chatter.

The parents all seem pleasant enough. If they are 'leaving me out' I can't say I've noticed, and I don't care or otherwise about being an 'outsider'. Sometimes someone will talk to me, others, they won't. I can't say that I mind either way.

The bustle of getting kids off and away in the mornings can be stressful. I've never given it a lot of thought before, but this post has made me grateful and I think I have it relatively easy!

Wineisrequired · 06/09/2021 13:37

Yanbu- absolutely hated it .

Pippapet · 06/09/2021 14:07

DrunkenKoala I hear you on that, except in my case it was friends of my DC, I would be struggling with a baby in pram, a toddler, plus my school age DD, and this friend of my DD (and their sibling) were on the same route every morning and would attach themselves to me, chatting away and walking too slowly or too far ahead (with my school aged DD) so it would either slow me down because they were dawdling, or stress me out because of crossing busy roads and they were too far ahead for my liking. Also, on the way home they would chat away telling me about their day and how they liked this and did that and my own DD couldn't get a word in which then upset her, because I felt I had to be polite and respond to them but my DD would want to tell me her own news too.

The mum was really nice but she just let her DC run loose and she was more laid back, so she'd be checking her phone or whatever whereas I had my hands full with both mine and hers. It was stressful. It was good when they moved house so had a different route for the school run walk, and I could relax again. Smile

Marcee · 06/09/2021 14:10

I have to drop mine off in the morning. Traffic is horrendous.

Breakfast club still hasnt started again.
So rushing. Waiting til at least 8.30 then rush to work so I'm not late. Not as bad as last year where I had to drop a kid off at nursery as well before work.
She goes in the afternoons now.
Late every day at work.

NotSure94 · 06/09/2021 14:11

I loved it! Mine are both at secondary now and walk to school so it's over for me. Logistically we were only 10 mins from the school so that helped I expect!

I never bothered with the other mums except for one or two, never cared what I looked like. I just loved seeing all the kids in their uniforms chattering and playing and running about being kids - made me nostalgic for school days of my own. It always set me up for the day to see my DSs washed and in their uniforms, packed lunches in bags, happily running through the gates, like everything was alright in the world for a moment. Grin

NotSure94 · 06/09/2021 14:14

Although I must admit last year (my last year) there was a hip dad on an adult scooter (not e scooter just a stupid looking massive oversized one who scooted side by side with his son in matching helmets and they took up the whole pavement and it was so twatty as everyone had to swerve out of the way for them and veered towards the performative parenting I felt Grin

Severntrent · 06/09/2021 14:16

I think doing most things with 4 kids would be more tricky and tiresome than doing it with 1 or 2 kids, which would be a breeze in comparison. Especially going on a busy bus.
But aren't you used to getting up early with 4 small kids??? What am I doing wrong!

Swipe left for the next trending thread