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?

I agree, walking to school a hardship?! 🙄😁
I've always thought a lot of (not all!) drivers get lazy - they'll literally drive down the road sometimes when it's just as easy to walk.
It's not hardship to walk to school for goodness sake.
Used to walk with mine daily, it was about half an hour there, half an hour back. So about an hour a day in total.

I'm glad you weren't my mother!

They absolutely cannot do that. There’s a massive crater in the road which spans most of the width of the road and then craters either side where they’ve taken pipes out. It’s only just wide enough for a pedestrian in places.

I’ve had great fun watching people bomb up to the road works since Monday, then turn around in a stroppy 3 point turn and shoot off back the way they came 😁judging by the workmen’s expressions whenever I’ve walked past, they’ve been enjoying it as well!

Well yes, quite. Somehow this thread has segued into the ridiculous narrative that walking 6 miles a day in shitty weather while carrying a heavy bag will solve obesity and mental health problems. Lots of purposefully obtuse and hyperbolic nonsense being spouted.

No one is saying that walking isn’t great exercise. Or even that 6 miles is far. Posters are pointing out that a walk of this distance to and from school, over hilly terrain in crappy weather and likely with heavy bags is unlikely to be an enjoyable experience due to this context. Personally I wouldn’t want my children to arrive at school already tired and wet from the elements, I don’t think is conducive to learning. I would find an alternative solution.

Then again I don’t have a chip on my shoulder and misguided notions around ‘well I walked 14 miles in 30 minutes back in my day’ that I want to inflict upon my children.

Oh how fun for you to watch other people’s misery. What a delight you are. You sound like a real peach op - poor bloody kids. I hope their father has a backbone or grows one and stands up for them.

No has claimed it will “solve” anything.

Only that it will lessen problems currently growing at alarming rates.

There is so much research on the benefits of gentle exercise that I’m astounded you’re denying the very strong link between gentle exercise and health and wellbeing.

I walk this distance, every day. Rain or shine. I am not tired afterwards. It’s a very gentle form of exercise and an opportunity to spend some time in the fresh air.

Everyone driving everywhere, normalising being sedentary, is having enormous repercussions on our generation and the ones after us.

26% of children are now overweight or obese.
65% of adults are now overweight or obese.

Do you think we should be looking towards the American model of driving everywhere or other nation’s models of walking and cycling?

@Thedevilhasfinallycaughtupwithhim I am astonished you keep harping on about a topic that is not what the OP is about, purposefully being obtuse and ignoring the context of the thread. Maybe you should start your own thread instead of hijacking this one, you are clearly desperate for attention. I won’t be engaging with you further, you clearly lack skills in reading comprehension.

My mum always made me walk everywhere and I definitely moaned about it at times. She told me a few years ago that some other parents thought she was really harsh making us always walk, but now I'm an adult I really appreciate what she did - I grew up fit and healthy thanks to her.

Oh sorry. I thought this thread was about the benefits of walking to school vs driving?

What is it actually about? Perhaps you could enlighten me because all your posts seem to be about the same thing as I am writing about 🤔

Here’s some research in the meantime

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/children-who-walk-to-school-less-likely-to-be-overweight-or-obese-study-suggests

• “aim for an average of at least 60 minutes of moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity a day across the week”

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/physical-activity-guidelines-children-and-young-people/

https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what-we-do/blogs/importance-movement-mental-health

Did your dh really do your head in over something as mild an issue as this?

I walk a mile to the train station and then after a ten minutes on the train a further nearly two miles to my workplace and the same home again. I love it! I just wear waterproof coat and boots if it rains, did not realise it was such a big deal!

I think expecting kids to do a daily 10k over hilly terrain while loaded down with heavy packs in unpleasant weather conditions 5 days a week is wildly unreasonable. I think they'll end up with health problems from it.

They're not in fucking boot camp in the Army.

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

I am 70 and have never learned to ride a bike!

Same. But be careful I was interrogated about it earlier!

If those who don't drive get shit about missing important life skill, inability to function as an adult, user etc. It is only fair thay cyclists get is aswell. Equality 💪🏻

Only if they’re the ones giving non drivers shit!

How old are they? If they are middle school aged, or older, absolutely let them walk! It will be good for them. I lived about a 10 minute walk from both the high school and middle school in the town where my kids attended (the schools were next to one another) and they bitched like you would NOT believe because I made them walk. (Even if it was raining. That's why umbrellas were invented)
Somehow, they survived. Also--it's totally insane, but some parents DROVE their little darlings to school every. single. day. Until they turned 16, and then they got a brand new car. Ugh. (this is in the US)

I remember my grandfather (I'm 65) telling me how he got 'permission', finally, from his father to attend school (his dad wanted him to spend all his time working on the farm, and to forgo school) in a town 10 miles away. He RODE his HORSE to school! In the rain and snow, too. (according to him, anyway) Kids today (mine included) have been so coddled it's embarrassing.

I’m all for walking and exercise BUT.. I used to walk 30 mins to school which was 1.4 miles. It was hell if the weather was bad or cold. Double that plus a bit more? Can you drive part of the way then they walk? Stick them on a bus? Can they ride a bike there? All nicer options than walking that distance every day, potentially left in soaking wet clothes /shoes all day.

PS My grandfather ended up going to medical school, and was the town doctor for over 50 years, so there's that.

?

Bike. And give them an incentive.

Kids in this country are too pampered. In others they walk twice that distance and in harsh terrain to get to and from school. They are more than happy to do tjis as education is very important. Three miles for a month or so is nothing and will do them good. Sorry, but I walked about 4.5 miles to school every day as a kid.

This seems sensible to me, as long as the children are old enough and sensible enough.

We appear to have developed into a society that requires a 3 minute hop in the car to school. A balanced approach is both more healthy for the children and environmentally friendly.

Safety first though together with ensuring the kids can get to school on time.

This. I actually think it’s cruel of you to do that. After a long day at school and sport and the poor kids would be hungry too. Do the drive, don’t be cruel