To make the kids walk 3miles to school?

[DHdoingmyheadin]

Due to ongoing roadworks, the main road through the village to my kids school is closed and will be for c. a month. We are right at the edge of where the roadworks are so we have two options:

(A) A 15 mile detour by car, down the road all the traffic is being funnelled down (a main A road that is congested even when the road through the village is open). Which I trialled yesterday, and took me 45 minutes each way. This was with no school traffic as schools go back tomorrow. So I’d be doing at least 90 minutes of driving each morning and DH 90 mins in the afternoon.

(B) The kids walk to school and back. 3 miles each way.

DH is adamant I can’t possibly expect them to walk. It’s hilly. It’s due to rain. I think they walk. I think it would be insane to drive when it’s literally faster for them to walk. It’s 3 miles. I’m not asking them to swim the channel and then scale Mount Everest. Kids are 12 and 13.

AIBU to put my foot down and refuse to drive?

That was you! Other than this thread most people have never walked that far to school. They either attended a nearer school or took public transport. One of my schoolfriends lived exactly 50 yards from our school and she wasn't overweight!

Free school transport for primary children living further than 2 miles and seniors living 3 miles was introduced in the 1944 Education Act.

I think it is ok for them to walk, or cycle, definitely - at least one way. Maybe the DH could pick them up.

Why do you think that's strange? My DD could ride a bike with stabilisers at 3, without at 4. That's certainly not unusual.

OP has obviously driven them up till now. I don't know the area, but, if they walk part of the way through the barriers, would there be a possibility of catching a bus for the final leg of the journey? As neither the car journey nor the 3 mile walk sound particularly attractive.

I don’t think that’s unusual at all.

13year old me and 60ish me as well !

What about electrical bikes, if that is in the budget? With enough power they should be able to handle the hills.

Massive assumptions here that everyone can ride a bike. Typical mumsnet.

What will you be doing while they are walking 6 miles in the missing rain..?

I would give them a life every day. It's called parenting.

@NavyTurtle , I walked to and from school. It's called free exercise.

Or infantilising

I’ll be in my bedroom, making no noise and pretending I don’t exist.

It's 3 miles each way in September, and in one of the drier regions of the UK.
For about 20-30 school days.

You're right. I wrongly assumed that the OP'S DC could ride bikes. They might not even own bikes.

Your DH is right. If you think it’s fine, you walk with them.

It is possible to parent without a car you know.

Really bloody sensible. Why would she walk three miles only to turn round and walk back again?

In a glitch involving a surprisingly unintutitive mobile phone providers app contributing to an unexpected absence of data, my scatty 12 year old has today kindly tested out the viability of walking over 3.1 miles with a substantial hill to get home from school.

Bearing in mind that he waited for a bus to discover he had no means to pay, went and checked a couple of streets away where I would normally pick up in case there'd been a change of plan as he didn't see his sibling (caught the prior bus), forgot there was a more direct route back to the main road and double-backed adding extra distance, and then at the point I rang to check on him, decided to sit on a bench until I doubled back along his route to meet him with 10 mins to go, he was home 1hr 10 mins after school finishing time taking those early delays to the journey and rest on the bench into account.

If it had been an intended walk, he'd have got home within the hour.

He got home, I made some banana pancakes and gave him some coke to pep him up and he had a 20min turnaround before his tutoring session. His energy level has been normal for the rest of the evening.

He is used to that kind of distance. He runs 5k/ 3.1mi regularly with a 22min pb, and ran/ walked it from the age of 5 getting times of 50-55mins when he started.

My first couple of jobs involved walking to work then standing/ walking all day.
In 6th form I opted to walk 2mi to school then back again (with heavy folders, Eng lit texts and beefy textbooks) which took about 25 mins. I used to love it when I beat the bus as it crawled along in traffic. Excellent way to develop a brisk pace despite 26" legs. I took that up following a gruelling DoE trip and when we asked our teacher how to get fitter for it, he said "the best way to get fit for walking is walking" so I quit the bus and walked instead.

Its a fair assumption. The OP didn't mention any disabilities and disability aside the vast vast majority of children ought to be able to ride a bike by 12.

& tapping away on mumsnet all day by the look of it!

Not encouraging independence and smothering is not parenting giving children the tools to cope without a hand hold is a parents job. These children are in senior school an age where previous generations have always got themselves to school and enjoyed the social interaction and confidence in doing so unfortunately over protective parenting has robbed them of it.

Tell them to get the bus. If you're worried it won't get there in time tell them to get an earlier one! The school know about the issue.

The council have adapted the routes to cope with the temporary situation.

I don’t go to my nearest station because the trains don’t go where I need to go! I walk to one a couple of miles away to the one that has a direct train to the city in red to go to because it is a lot quicker than trying to change trains and the trains are fucking unreliable anyway …

At those ages and with no additional
meeds, would be a bit sad if they couldn’t ride bikes…