Should schools be telling parents to walk kids to school?

[bellamountain]

This isn't an argument for the environment or to keep kids fit but to stop the roads around schools becoming so dangerously congested and for parents who do need to drive their kids, to be able to do so and not have to battle for parking. I take the kids to school and then have to shoot off to work, any one doing the same and the car is essential. However, the majority of the mums at my school do not work, they could easily walk their kids the relatively short distance but choose not too. They all have huge cars and all aim to get as close to the school as possible, it makes crossing the road dangerous, even with a one way system in place enforced by the school. Parents also sitting in their cars with the engines idling with the heater or air con. I'll be the first to admit that I love my car and I couldn't live without it, but when I'm not at work I walk to school and back. It's far less stressful yet the same parents clog the roads every day. I swear it's a pissing contest sometimes to flaunt who has the nicest car and this is a state school!

@orwellwasright it doesn't make you more important, it's only the posters on here who have come to that conclusion. It's simply recognising the need that some people could face the sack if they don't get to work on time, or are only paid by the hour. Money they are earning to keep a roof over their kids head and feed them. They aren't driving and rushing around for the fun of it but many many parents are, simply using the car when they don't need to (every day at that).

Two points here.. of course being bound by your employer's timescales means that driving makes things much easier for you.

But your needs do not trump other people's. It is perfectly reasonable for someone else to feel their haircut, coffee or tennis game is as equally important as your job.

You don't get to decide what's important or not to other people.

And you need to see how judgemental you are of SAHMs and how they spend their time because that is a very unpleasant trait and you're not coming across well.

@orwellwasright I've obviously hit a nerve but it doesn't take away from the fact that if you're parking badly, causing congestion and making it unsafe to cross the road with small children and when really don't need to be in the car, then actually it does make someone who needs to go to work straight after more important.

Perhaps we need school buses like in the USA

It has become crazy, we live near a school and you try to avoid leaving or arriving home around drop off and pick up times.

Some people could walk

You couldn’t park a little further away and walk the last bit, OP? Not only is it a pain in the arse to walk when the roads are so busy, but it’s taking those of us on foot longer to get to work because it takes so long to cross the roads.

YABU in that schools can't stipulate who is and isn't allowed to drive. Parents who work have no more "right" to drive than those who don't. I agree that walking is better though (I walk my DCs to school then walk to work after).

I do, I walk the last bit, leave the car on a quiet stretch of road along with some other very sensible mums doing the same. I can then turn back without actually passing the school. Get too close and it's absolute carnage and still, parents insist on parking as close as they can possibly get. You see the mums with buggies unable to walk past cars that are up on the kerb, they then have to walk in the road. It's dangerous and you can't see for crossing. There are traffic wardens occasionally and the school have cones immediately outside but other than that it's chaos, and it affects a lot of schools.

So ridiculous.

Surely it's better for secondary school dc to make their own way in suburban areas and become more independent

Yes, same at mine - absolute compulsion to get as close to the school as possible, even if it means driving onto the pavements, blocking paths etc. Maddening.

Love the level of entitlement here. No one else should drive so that the roads are clear for MEEEEEEEEE

Good luck with that.

You won't have time? I thought it was a short walk? Leave earlier 🤷🏼‍♀️

No reason? None at all? Really?

Nobody has the right to park badly and dangerously, whether they 'need' to be in the car for their important job or not.

And you are so perfectly illustrating the problem.

YABU to criticise other people for doing exactly what you do. You have no idea where they’re about to go after drop-off

How do you know that other parents can easily walk to and from school? My mobility needs are not very obvious.

I live opposite a small (and very competitive) primary school with a tiny catchment area. Drop off and pick up times on the road are an absolute nightmare because of the cars and when I look at the sheer number of cars on the road I wonder how it’s possible - if you live far enough from the school that you need to drive there, then how did your child get a space?My guess a lot of parents get their kids in there then promptly move further away.

Can you not then walk everyday and nip back home to pick up your car for work?

Love the level of entitlement here. No one else should drive so that the roads are clear for MEEEEEEEEE

Quite 😂

Quality OP here. I'm sure everyone else thinks their reasons are as super important as yours. Your entitlement is wild.

That happens with one of the secondaries near us. Lots of sale signs go up in October, and there’s a lot of six-month lets.

You're clutching at straws here. Read all my posts. I've never defended anyone who parks badly or endangers children. I've made lots of comments about bad parking around schools and how crazy some people behave re. the school run.

My point to you is simply that, as a working parent, you can't decide your time is more important than a non-working parent. Because that makes you sound like a snooty, entitled arse.

NB. I walk my kid to school then I come back and get my car to drive to work. I'm keeping the roads clear for the really important people like you. I think you should be thanking me, frankly.

I am one of these sahm who no one else would know but I have chronic pain and am not able to do the walk. How do you know what all the sahp are doing after the drop off to be able to judge them so outwardly

@bellamountain
I've obviously hit a nerve but it doesn't take away from the fact that if you're parking badly, causing congestion and making it unsafe to cross the road with small children and when really don't need to be in the car

It doesn’t matter whether you “need” to be in the car or not, if you are parking badly, causing congestion and making it unsafe to cross the road with small children then you shouldn’t be driving.

Schools, especially primary schools, in the UK have huge problems because they were designed and planned for a time before the vast majority of parents had a second car for mum to drive the kids to school in. Most before driving to work was a significant thing at all.

And we haven’t been prepared to make the sorts of changes necessary to make them safe places for kids to walk - like public investment in walking busses, or banning non-resident traffic from roads around schools at drop off and pick up time, or even just having traffic wardens or police officers enforce the traffic laws nearby frequently enough to change driver behaviour.

That doesn’t mean your decision to go to work and increase your financial prospects (a decision I thoroughly approve of) gives you more “rights” over the roads we do have than the families who choose to prioritise other things and don’t get that financial lift from working.

Same for the secondaries here. People can and do get the first child in and then move further out/somewhere cheaper because sibling rule will get the younger children in. The catchment areas are about a mile but lots of kids get the train from towns 5 or 6 miles away (although getting the train in itself is not causing traffic jams it means some kids local to the schoolwork get places and may get driven elsewhere to school)