AIBU.. Reactions to walking to primary school?

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Due to a house move, we had a hard time getting a suitable primary school place for DS in September. Thankfully we've now managed to secure one which is 1.3 miles from our new address.

I have a car but I fully intend on walking to school with him. We currently walk to nursery which is about half the distance, and I love our walks and chats together.

The thing that has really surprised me is the amount of negative reactions from other parents about our plans to walk. 'What about in the winter! What if it's raining! They will be so exhausted!' Some of them so dramatic like I'm commiting an awful act against my DS!

We are an outdoorsy family and have plenty of warm winter gear, decent waterproofs, scooters (with pull along strap if needed) and even a bike with large seat if he's really struggling in the first term.

Also it's a big school with absolutely notorious issues for parking/ driving at school run time so I plan to avoid the stress of that! And I will still have my car if there is an emergency/illness etc, but don't plan to use it otherwise.

AIBU to be a bit miffed at everyone's reactions?

for you maybe - but for others there is, school wrap round care and a cycle commute on an electric bike. TBH where I live commuting 5 miles takes an hour in a car according to Facebook local groups

They sit along my road doing this - yet one street away is a wonderful children park. They don't take the children to play though, they sit in the car for 45 minutes morning and afternoon, its one street away from the school.

Our school didn't provide wraparound care and I would not have been up for cycling my route!! Plus it would have been stupid anyway - I needed the car to drop the three kids off and pick them up again!!

Or are you saying I should have left my car at the school and commuted on an electric bike to work?!! Which wouldn't have been much help when I was picking the children up from the nursery or childminder!

Get real!

I walk with my children. We get to talk and it's so much nicer than stress of driving. It's about 25 mins one way with chilled walking pace. There are other parents who walk every day as well, so we aren't the only ones. My grandparents walked me to school and I loved it.

Do you think you might have been a tad over enthusiastic/evangelical about it which is why you’ve had the counter reaction back? When the weather is nice, I much prefer the walk to school than drive (just under 1 mile). However, I’ve had some bloody horrible walks to school. A 4yo dragging their feet can make for quite a stressful morning as can carrying pe kits, books bags, dealing with stinging nettles, scraped knees etc. so, while I’m all for walking, I wouldn’t begrudge others who drive to make their lives a bit easier.

Why do you care? Don’t pay any attention to other opinions! If you want to walk to school, walk to school!

Do children melt in the rain?

I care how people get their kids to school, irs an interesting subject to me

You may have strong opinions if the streets around school are congested with school run cars

So not referring to you then

People are lazy unfortunately. We used to walk to preschool & school when we lived in a village, but after we moved (100 miles away) we are now on an old farm in the middle of nowhere. The children’s schools are 5-6 miles away, so we drive now. At our old school there was a mum who not only lived in the village and drove (no disabilities) but also she HAD to get one of the few spaces in the tiny school car park, rather than park in the lane outside like everyone else did, purely because her child “shouldn’t be made to walk if he doesn’t like to”! She would double park and block people in as her child was so entitled, and would have a hissy fit if she wasn’t in the car park! She seemed to live in fear of upsetting him, so sad. Anyway, I used to love walking the children to and from school - I do still enjoy our drive now and we still have the same chats, but walking is much nicer than driving.

Our school is about the same distance

We always bike there

We always walked, often reaching the playground a full ten minutes before the parents who lived within five houses of us did - having already driven past us once.

It was alright - having done the waddling down & up the hill in a fecking heatwave for 3 weeks and leaning very heavily on the pram 3 days after DD2 was born - and then the buggy with the greenhouse covering/parasol in summer; once the littlest started at school nursery, we had;

Walk to school for eldest and back.
Carry on from school to get to preschool/shopping and back.
Out at lunchtime for nursery and back.
Pick up at nursery and school and back.

In cold weather, they had coats and gloves that they wouldn't wear, in hot weather, they opted for going through the woods because it was cooler, in rain there were umbrellas to have sword fights with whilst their (still open, allergic to zips apparently) coats did the heavy lifting - no wellies allowed at school.

Frequently had people who lived with 100m of us driving past (and them still not getting into school or home until we were at the front gate/door both on the way out and the way back in the mornings, as they didn't work). The people going on to work never really registered with me beyond seeing them sprint from the playground to their cars to try and make it to work for 9.15am.

Difference was that I wasn't making some statement about being outdoorsy or ecofriendly. We were just skint, which was far worse in their eyes; I even walked into the tailend of a conversation once where a bunch of them were saying it's neglect to make children walk.

It could be interesting as a social experiment to see whether they assume outdoorsy or poor, though.

I'm currently looking for a new position (current child now outgrown the need for a nanny). I'm actively looking for a walkable school run. Anything under 2 miles. I really don't want to go back to driving it, well, really don't want to go back to the parking!! (Been spoilt last few years as plenty of parking at large private school!) & I'm looking forward to the walking. I like walking for a reason (rather than just walking for the sake of it)

Well it is cheaper to walk that is true, with the added advantage of being eco friendly and healthy, win win!

Do you think I'm the only person who has to drive?! Or had to more accurately. Glad to have finally concluded my 21 years on the school run!

I do actually live 100 yards from a senior school, so I understand from both sides. Our primary was about 1.2 miles, or 25 minutes away. It was lovely to walk on the days I wasn't working, but needing to get straight off to work after the school run meant I didn't have the luxury of an hour long walk each morning and each afternoon. Of course residents blamed us working parents for being lazy, one even called me greedy for not making do with my husband's income, but I say blame the system or lack of transport and safe parking, rather than parents just trying to get to work.

You’re setting your kids up for a lifetime of being active, being resilient and doing the right thing. Your choice is healthier and greener and we need more people to stop being so lazy and make the same decision.

We are a 20 min walk, 10 min bike ride from school and we have walked or cycled pretty much every day for the last 4 years.
I think we are definitely in the minority but we do it whatever the weather and it's totally fine.
Ignore the haters and just go with it.

Yes. Please walk when you can. I teach year 6 and we regularly walk them about in the local area. The amount of them that can’t cope with walking a mile to the local library is worrying. They have no stamina and are constantly asking for breaks, even though we’re not walking particularly fast.
At primary age, government recommendations are an hour of exercise a day. A mile to and from school wouldn’t even cover that hour.

I had always walked with mine, anything from half to a mile.
Just wait until you let them walk on thier own at a primary age and see the reactions...but seeing as mine had walked in all weathers, learned who were the local regular faces to say hello to, to cross the road safely, to make good judgements and act on them etc, walking to school with pals from around 9 was ideal.
The best I had was someone ringing me on eve of secondary to ask if one of mine would walk wrong direction to show a friend/classmate how to walk across our small town to school - they had never crossed a road on their own.....

Fitness-wise it's good for your child and good for you (you presumably will be doing double the distance). It's also good for the chats you have as you walk- quality time where you focus on each other. Admit my walk wasn't as far, probably 0.8 of a mile and sometimes my youngest wouid moan as we set off on the way home but a few distracting questions put a stop to that. As for the rain, one of our funniest memories was walking on a narrow pavement in torrential rain and getting soaked by the passing cars.

for you maybe - but for others there is

you state you have to use a car as you have a 15 mile commute - I replied with for you maybe but for others there is.

Nowhere did I write that you should get wrap round care, nowhere did I write you should get an ebike - I actually wrote for others meaning other people do things differently from you

And I was sharing my own experience which is every bit as valid as yours, and one which I also share with very many other mums!!

Or are you saying I should have left my car at the school and commuted on an electric bike to work?!! Which wouldn't have been much help when I was picking the children up from the nursery or childminder!

Get real!

Thats not sharing your experience ^