To keep DD off school for the last week because i am just so done with it now?

[PhantomUnicorn]

Yes i'm joking.. but man, i wish it were possible. If she were at primary i'd probably consider it, but she's Yr9 and doing gcse stuff

This last bit of the school year is dragging so badly, and i am SO done with it.. i want the summer break already.

10 days left.

My DD missed all of year 9 and it made no significant difference, so I say YANBU.

I have that can't concentrate do anything if there's something scheduled in, however long away it is, I didn't know it was a thing.

I live in a village with no primary school. There closest one is five miles away in town, but there's no public transport options and the kids aren't allowed to travel in alone anyway. No chance of walking because it's along a duel carriageway!

It's more to do with how limited the bus routes are, in a lot of places. The busses are council funded, and that's expensive, so they usually make the minimum number of stops possible. Therefore, if there's only one child to pick up in your village, then maybe the bus doesn't stop there.

It's also sometimes to do with school choice, and not picking the school where the bus stops in your village.

There are also people who live on farms etc, where getting to the nearest village (for a bus pick up or otherwise) isn't a safe walk and may well be a few miles. It might be possible to cycle, but you can't always take your bike on a school bus.

I teach (and live) pretty rurally, and this is the norm for a small proportion of the children I teach. There's also the students who get a bus to grammar schools in the next county, or to private schools or specialist FE colleges- all of these have limited pick up points, so a lot of parents have to drive.

Where I'm currently living, it's a 10 minute drive or 30 minute cycle to get a pint of milk. It's not necessarily a bike ride I'd want an 11yo child doing, especially in the dark.

Life becomes so much harder if you can’t sleep - and your life sounds exhausting even without the poor sleep, @PhantomUnicorn!

I have recently discovered Feather and Down sleep butter, and I cannot recommend it highly enough - it contains magnesium (which is supposed to help with better sleep), lavender and camomile. I had tried everything else, from essential oils, pillow sprays, milky drinks and mindfulness to drugs - over the counter and prescription sleeping tablets - an this body butter is the only thing that has worked for me. I did try magnesium supplements but they didn’t work either.

It's a drag. Push through.

I think I suffer from adhd type traits. Maybe get your tasks done in the morning and schedule rest time just before pick up??? I get out and do errands on the way to pick up.

My kids school is 3 miles away along a very fast windey rural A road with no pavements where there are at least 3 fatalities every year ! They qualify for free transport... they sent us a bus pass... the nearest bus stop is over a mile's walk up said road. Given I won't walk the 250m to a friends house... thats not happening... my friends young adult son was killed trying to walk along it.

Lol!😂

If it's a 10 min drive she can get a bike. You could take her in bad weather but at least it wouldn't be every day.

We dropped DCs at school bus stop - 15 mins walk - but had to get it at 7.30 so any time saved was good. Dh it I went straight to work after so it wasn’t a big problem, but we did get up later in hols as could leave a bit later. They did walk home from it though!!!

You need to relocate to Ireland OP! My teenagers finished school over 5 weeks ago.

Dh main criteria for our house was our kids can walk to secondary school. His mum had to drive him and his brother to a bus stop for a then long bus journey and he bloody hated it

Question for people in rural areas - do local authorities really not provide transport anymore for schools?

I grew up in a small village in a very rural area. There was a primary in the village so that was fine, most of us could walk. But a small number of children lived on isolated farms and a minibus was laid on for them.

When we got to secondary there was only one school for our area and it was in the largest place, about five miles from our village. There was no public transport to speak of so a special bus was laid on.

For VI form I had to go even further so there were two buses involved, both provided by LA, a minibus to take me the 5 miles to the bus stop for the bus for the VI form.

I no longer live in that area so I have no idea how it works now.

Are you working in the afternoons? If not, does it really matter if you relax for an hour or two after lunch?

How far away is the school?

I'm guessing wfh or a sahm?

I feel your pain OP. The last few weeks are full of transition meetings, sports days, non uniform days, awards ceremonies, school trips, pe kit on random days. My head hurts just thinking about it all.

Also trying to keep medical appointments to a minimum in the summer holidays so we have more time for fun things. So we are doing extra appointments now. Yesterday my 10 year old had 2 appointments that were 90 minutes each. He had a decent amount of activity in between but he was still climbing the walls by the end of it all and so done with sitting still by half way through appointment number 2.

Won’t you have to look after her more once the summer holidays start?

Joking aside, I think as an adult you need to look at ways of easing your ADHD so you can function better and also probably getting your daughter a bike.
i don’t know how you fit work in with that background mental noise.

Can I suggest that you read all of the OP's updates. You will then understand why using a bike is not an option.

We have a village with a great bus service but there are really dangerous narrow lanes with a few houses dotted along fora few miles . It really isn’t that hard to imagine that it is actually quite dangerous to walk along the lane !

kind of both, Carer to my oldest DC who is disabled, so i'm both a SAHM and a WFH mom, lol.

there is transport here, but you either have to live outside a 10 mile radius of the school, which we don't, or have an EHCP, which she doesn't.

I feel for you OP, insomnia makes everything worse.

I joke about 'ADHD waiting mode' but it's crippling. If I have a task to do at a set time there is nothing happening until that. I use calendar reminders and schedule days when I know I have things to do so that I don't loose hours in waiting mode. So I might have:
8:30-9 drop off
9-11 structured work tasks in blocks
11-12 meeting
12:30-1 lunch
1:30-2 meeting
2-3 structured work tasks in blocks
3-3:30 school pick up
4-5 cook tea, tidy up
6-7 bath and bed time for toddler
7-8 spend time with older dc

It's not 100% but if I can focus on the next thing it helps me actually do things. However it does run the risk I forget to drink water or wee if it's not scheduled in because I'm focused on the calendar.

Almost there - the last days seem to drag but soon on school holidays

I find it’s a greater burden to have your child to look after all day, than it is to take them to school and get rid of them for several hours. I love dropping my kids off at school!