Why don't kids walk to school anymore

[Failingatthemoment]

I'm obviously old. BUT, when I went to school the majority of kids walked to school on their own from around the ages of 7/8. Now it only seems that ( some) secondary school kids do this.

Road is too busy near us, had three attempted kidnappings in the last few years in the area (still haven't caught the guys), 2 different 60+ year old men flashing their disgusting floppy dicks at the young school girls walking to and from the bigger school, a few muggings of kids by other kids etc. Plus, mothers mostly now have to dash off to work, so it's easier to drive the kids in, drop them off then dash off to work. Same with pick up.

My kids' school is on a quiet, residential street, which unfortunately turns into a racing track at school pick up/ drop off time. I don't even like crossing it myself. Cars coming from all directions, parked on corners/ bends so you can't see properly and bumper to bumper traffic. In our area there is a pilot scheme running at the moment where school roads are closed to cars in the mornings/ afternoons, fingers crossed it gets rolled out to more schools.

My eldest will be in yr6 next year, so will need to start walking independently in preparation for secondary school. I'll probably have to get her to walk the long way round, where she will be able to cross the road further away from the school where it's safer.

In our case it’s because I work right opposite school so I take ds and 3 friends up with me.

It’s 1.8 miles and by the time they’ve got books, PE kit, cooking stuff and a packed lunch they’re pretty loaded up so it works well. There is not a public transport option.

I’d love to but it’s a 4 mile walk with some pretty big hills that would take an adult an hour.

We live in an area where to guarantee a place at the local decent secondary, you have to practically be on their doorstep. So they live close to the primary to start (and walk) and then move for juniors. This means they are a few miles from the school and public transport isn't the best (or slow) so have no option but to drive.

Also the amount of times cars have sailed over the zebra crossing close to school when I'm waiting with my children ready to cross is awful (can't recruit lollipop lady due to rubbish hours/ wages). I do let my 10 year old walk by himself but I worry all the same.

People need to stop putting cars at the centre of their lives

Ouch!

A child season ticket for a train going the same distance is around £20/month, and I'm sure that there's an educational concession that halves that again.

@dreamingofskeggie 1.7m is a long way to walk in the morning for a child of 7 to have to do before 08.45am. My 7y/o walks at snails pace so we would have to leave the house about 45 mins before school starts. Not a chance we would be ready! Mornings are chaotic.

If you're not allowing your 7y/o to walk on their own (and let's face it most parents of 7 year olds wouldn't allow them to walk 1.7m on their own) then you as a parent have to do 1.7m there and back twice a day (over 6 miles of walking plus everything else you walk to). It might not seem like a lot to you but to a single parent or mother who has to do every single school run and after school club on top of work, clean, cook etc etc and all the parenting it can be shattering. And I say this as a parent who walks the school run 4 miles a day plus three clubs a week including saturdays.

Get off your moral high horse.

Because a lot of children live outside the catchment area.
A lot of parents drop them off on the way to work and pick them up on the way back.
Some parents/ children struggle with routine and at that time in the morning it's a nightmare.
Parents may have children at other schools.

A mile and a half is a long way to walk for a child whose parents never let him walk anywhere - a vicious circle!

Proposes, it takes 15 minutes or less to cycle 1.7 miles

most kids at both our D.C. primary and secondary walk to school. And it’s the same for the other state schools in our city because catchments mean kids live close to schools.
the only kids Insee being driven are the ones going to the local private school, and I only notice that because the parents are in enormous cars, and stop on the main road - blocking traffic- to let the kids out.

When I was at primary school, it was in the same village as where we lived and there was no through traffic either. Far less cars on the road then.
Compare that to now. We live in a town centre. They had a not very nice park to walk through and busy roads to cross. We walked when I was not in the office but it was not safe for them to walk alone.

Schools with larger catchment areas such as private or religious, have more kids being driven, which is not great

In our case:-
School is 5 miles away, rural and no footpaths.
Also we drop off on way to work.
If we were in the local school ( couldn't get in when we moved to the area as over subscribed) yes probably would walk.
Basically it will be circumstances and now most parents work so do not have time to fit in a walk then get to work.

My DD is in Y6 and has started walking part of the way on her own and part of the way home with a friend. She has only just felt comfortable to do that. A few of her classmates started walking alone in Y5, but in Y6 quite a lot of them do.

It’s a British cultural thing.

My son started walking to school age 8. He’s almost at the end of year 5 now and still the only one in his year to walk to and from by himself.

it’s absolutely crazy that we have got into the habit of walking kids to school through the junior years.

@notwhatsoever and as people said earlier, every child is different, every place that people live is different (quiet village vs busy city), every route is different (busy roads vs quiet route with no roads), length of route (long vs short), amount of nutters on the street etc.

You can't judge everyone else for not letting their 8 year old do it on their own. No way would I let my 8 year old do our busy, city centre high traffic and long journey on his own.

Why is it crazy to walk your kids go school?

@Ladykryptonite I suspect the PP feels some sort of moral highground that she likes to lord over others for allowing her 8y/o to walk to school on their own.

Prooses - but if you live in a city centre, do you really need to drive?

@Ladykryptonite I don't drive. I walk my child to school. I don't even have a car. I just wouldn't let him do it on his own, which the PP was suggesting was somehow terrible for any child 8 and over. According to PP every child over 8 should do it on their own.

Prooses, ah well yes I'm with u there

With regards to letting kids walk themselves (e.g at age 8) I also think that there's a tendency these days towards "well we did it in my day so we should do it now". If we applied this logic to everything we'd still be doing some mad stuff. Just because my mum, for example, walked herself to school age 5, does not mean I would be comfortable allowing my son age 5 to do it. Times change.

Mostly because they are pampered.