To think kids should be able to walk in the rain

[MiaMarshmallows]

To school if it is less than 30 minutes away?

Depends on age I guess? My son is 12 and has no choice but to walk the 30 mins to school or cycle for 20 mins rain or shine. I don't drive and my husband leaves for work before he goes to school. There is no bus route anywhere near his school. He just sucks it up and gets on with it like we all did when we were kids. My walk to school was a similar distance.

@TuftyMarmoset

I can’t believe what a big deal some people are making of this. I managed to walk to school in the rain without specialist waterproofs in the 2000s and carry around a coat/umbrella (and PE kit, and whatever other stuff - food tech/D&T supplies) and I didn’t dissolve, become traumatised, have any of my stuff go mouldy from damp, or sit in a puddle all day. I dried off within about half an hour and got on with life!

How on earth did anyone cope before 2010?

Is global warming contributing to the drowning children in the rain? Or just fuckwits of parents?

It does seem strange that people are worried about children going to school in rain. We all did it! Nobody thought anything of it. We had raincoats, outdoor shoes which we changed at school, and umbrellas. We also went to school in snow and thick fog!

My oldest has left primary school and my children have never been driven to school. They walk every day and wear coats if it is raining, wellies if snowing, suncream if sunny. I could drive if we wanted but nobody has ever suggested it. The walk to school is a fun part of the day.

My mum doesn’t drive and my dad left for work earlier than school hours so unless there was something really unusual happening, I never got a lift to/from school growing up. Infant and middle school we walked 40 mins there with mum in all weathers, secondary school I got a bus and then had a 20 min walk the other end - with my art folder/PE kit/papier mache volcano 😂 I don’t remember ever doing it in wellies, just my normal school shoes (and in secondary school I didn’t even have a raincoat I wore a puffa jacket - that dates it haha) I still quite like walking places now unless I’m trying to look extra nice for something haha and I wonder if it’s because I got used to it? I would like to walk my kid to school when the time comes (I’m lucky I wfh with flexible hours so it’s an option for me) but I guess that depends on where we end up going…

I do find it ridiculous when parents drive kids everywhere. I know some go on to work but I see it with other activities too which are only a couple of minutes away and could easily be walked to.
Kids get too pampered and lazy driven around everywhere.

@MiaMarshmallows

I do find it ridiculous when parents drive kids everywhere. I know some go on to work but I see it with other activities too which are only a couple of minutes away and could easily be walked to. Kids get too pampered and lazy driven around everywhere.

So just don’t drive your kids. Why are you so interested in what other people are doing/whether their kids are lazy or pampered? You don’t know if they’re lazy, perhaps they’re driving straight to an intensive sports club. Maybe they’re going home to rest because they attend before and after school club and are tired. Why does it matter that other parents aren’t making their kids walk 30 minutes in the rain? You’re still free to do it.

@MiaMarshmallows

I do find it ridiculous when parents drive kids everywhere. I know some go on to work but I see it with other activities too which are only a couple of minutes away and could easily be walked to. Kids get too pampered and lazy driven around everywhere.

I live a 5 min walk from school. You can do it in 3 and a half if you run.

Two neighbours DRIVE their kids to school. Despite the route taking longer to drive than walk because of how there is only a path way that goes direct. They then park on the double yellows because there is no where else to park as its so busy (best place to park is outside our house due to the traffic...).

Unsurprisingly they are not the slimmest - and they moan constantly about their weight. I know them well enough to know there are no other health issues going on. They are simply lazy and there is really no way to be more polite about it.

Its not as if they are saving any time at all and its not a hard / dangerous / difficult walk in anyway (its safer to walk than drive due to the road having traffic calming / one way points).

It truly amazes me and very much winds me up. Especially since they leave to pick the kids up at 2pm so they can get a parking spot right outside the school and then run their engine for an hour to keep warm in the winter! School doesnt finish until 3.10pm!!!

Got drenched walking to primary school with grandchildren yesterday.

My grandma used to say - We are not made of sugar.

I've never had a car so walked the school run in all weathers when DCs were primary age. I miss it! I really miss it. And I'm much less active now I don't have that reason to go out for a walk twice a day (not very good at motivating myself off the sofa )

I loved the cold and / or wet walks. I only hated it when it was hot.

I used to spend £30-£40 on a decent coat each, in a size up so it'd last 2 years, wellies with school shoes carried in a bag. Hats in wool or fleece to repel water. No problem.

Exactly. If others are happy to walk in a downpour, let them be. Not sure why it makes kids pampered if 1)you don’t know their circumstances 2)they are little and parents simply don’t want them getting to school wet.

Well yeah, they could, but it's a fucking miserable thing to make them do before school.

Most kids here don't walk to school despite it being a tiny town where the school is exactly in the middle of the town so the furthest you have to walk is about 20 mins. Most don't walk. Even on sunny nice days.

Hell yes!

So they can get wet and stay wet until their clothes dry naturally. I don’t drive so my DCs had to walk in the rain.

I think 30 minutes is a bit on the long side in heavy rain but I did it today with mine and a pram which was about 20 minutes there and back.

You can get reasonably priced waterproof coats, trousers and wellies which unless you're really skint, should be a fairly standard thing to own in the UK I would have thought.

Sometimes it rains so hard, unless you have water proof trousers and wellies as well as a waterproof coat the children would be soaked to the skin. A lot of people don’t have all of that. It’s like a monsoon here today. We always walked in the rain, but not on a day like today.

school only has lockers and nowhere for wellies or even to hang up wet coats. Also involves a 4 mile walk through woods, across fields and down lanes without pavements which usually have speeding cars.

Yes I walked to school in heavy rain as a child but thats was 1/2 a mile on London pavements and DM didnt have to rush off to work.

To be fair, we really don't have much spare space in school. Certainly not enough for every child to bring more than one pair of shoes/boots, a spare chair of clothes, full waterproof outfits (a number of ours in reception especially come in full rain suits l add to this that they can't get in and out of them themselves), umbrellas etc. Old Victorian school with too many classes in than it was ever designed for. Rainy days are a nightmare for trying to hang everything up that they bring.

Plus in reception and often year 1 they still can't get changed fully themselves, so we end up taking ages to help them get changed. Then half end up with soggy socks and wet shoes. All the floats are near in on top of each other do never actually dry all day.

Not many of ours actually come by car - and the last couple of days it really shows. We lose a fair bit of time in the lower classes getting children ready when they arrive, ready before and after each break and lunch and then again at home time.

And far too many really don't have the appropriate wet weather clothes. Some today came without coats - that was fun at last okay and hometime when it decided to rain heavily again.

Children don't even get playtime if it is raining - I can't bear it! my kids are bouncing off the walls when we have wet weather, I pick them up and they have watched tv in the classroom

We play out in wet weather. In my experience most schools have at least reception and key stage 1 out in all weathers. Wet play is definitely not of any benefit to the teaching staff. Imagine your one or two children bouncing off the walls if missed playtime, and multiply several times - nightmare. I'd rather they get wet than deal with an afternoon last session after a day of wet breaks.

@EatYourVegetables

YANBU. Obesity epidemic, climate emergency, and a fuel crisis, yet some people can’t walk for 30 min.

As for the poster who says But it took me 2 hours to get ready, YABU, jeez, what do you do for 2h, it took me less time to give birth.

That really did make me laugh out loud!

As for the poster who says But it took me 2 hours to get ready, YABU, jeez, what do you do for 2h, it took me less time to give birth.

That made me laugh out loud.

It takes me 30 minutes max to get ready, and that includes a shower, hairdryer, breakfast and teeth. I skipped the shower this morning, rolled out of bed at 8.15 and was in a meeting by 8.30 (wfh).

Depends on various factors. My daughter doesn't mind walking in the rain, but if it is very heavy I would prefer to drive her in. I have still got petrol though!

DD12 walked the 10/15 min journey to school yesterday morning, dressed appropriately including coat and school shoes. It was spitting when she left, then suddenly the heavens opened.
By the time she got to school she was completely soaked through to the skin and sat through the first lesson shivering, with puddles in her shoes, as did most of the rest of the class.
Walking to second lesson a TA felt her arm and pronounced her too wet for her liking, so marched her to the store room and gave her a spare jumper.
By the time she got home, most of her was still damp and she smelled like a wet dog, poor thing.
There's nothing of her as it is, so she was cold and wet all day. I felt terrible, but if I'd jumped in the car to take her it would have taken me half an hour to battle through the traffic!

It isn't "ridiculous" for a child who needs accompanying on the 30 minute wet walk when the parent then needs to walk back 30 mins in the rain or not. A lot of parents don't have the luxury of not needing to set off for work until 9.15am

Some incredibly shirt sighted people that live in bubbles...

Plus, I wouldn't want to start my day miserably if there was another option either. So why should they? What we did in the past isn't a measure of virtue. We used to send kids up chimneys too.