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?

Cycle or scoot? And you give them a lift in bad weather/make sure they keep a change of trousers at school.

What are other local parents doing? Our primary school has a bike bus where children and parents can cycle together as a group. Could that work?

Where did he keep his horse whilst he was at school @BeAzureRaven ?

Fgs @Thedevilhasfinallycaughtupwithhim i was on the Monjaru weight loss injections support threads with you. You are obese. Get off your high horse

My grandmothers couldn’t ride bikes either, wasn’t the done thing back then apparently.

I’m not 😀

I had a BMI of 30 in April, I took Mounjaro for one month, then fell pregnant, I had a miscarriage in July, and I’ve been able to maintain my weight through the whole summer.
My BMI is now 26.

I have struggled with my weight. I don’t deny that. I don’t want my children to have the same problems and for laziness to become their norm. I want better health for my children.

What’s wrong with that?

And just to add, I have always walked the kids to school and back. My problem was eating lots of rubbish for late night snacking. I’ve managed to curb that over the summer and I’m working really hard to maintain that.

These are all bad habits that need to be addressed.

Culturally, we are normalising unhealthy eating and sedentary lifestyles.

We need to change this mindset. And who better to comment on the that someone who struggled with their weight themselves?

you’re on this thread despondent and depressed about the obesity of others, when you were, went on the jabs, pregnant, come off 🤷‍♀️

Had to walk 3 miles to school and back 40 years ago though tbf was because i spent my bus money on cigs and sweets. It ls only a month, not mid winter, it won’t kill them and they may even enjoy it.

I’d just like to note an unusual phenomenon.

I started reading this thread thinking you were being unreasonable, but having read it all, I’ve changed my mind.

…I’m not saying this is a first, but it doesn’t happen every day.

I might start another thread to discuss how often that happens to other people.

You can see my posts. On the second thread I changed my name to bonjournomounjourno or something.

You can see I stopped posting in around June 3rd when I got my positive pregnancy test. I obviously stopped taking it immediately.

I’m not depressed or despondent.

I’m positive. I’m supporting the idea that most people can and should walk a few hours a day.

The reason the weight dropped off me so quickly is because once I’d addressed my poor eating habits, I was already walking 6 miles a day.

Also, thanks for the condolences on my miscarriage.

Has the school acknowledged there will be issues with children getting in on time? What is Plan B for days of heavy rain (we’ve had a number of those recently).

Walking a few hours a day, do you mean miles? I think it’s not realistic for people to walk hours every day. (It takes me around 12 mins to walk a mile, so a minimum of walking 10 miles daily (20-25k steps) isn’t feasible or realistic.

you see this kind of post.

You conveniently neglect to mention that your obesity was due to poor diet. On here it’s all about lack of exercise as being the “problem in society”

Anyway, I’ll leave you to it

Well, anything is better than nothing.

I walk six. I walk for around two hours a day in two intervals. I’m going somewhere though and I’m with my three kids for half of it. I think if I was more purposeful in my walking, and was alone for it, I could definitely do it much more quickly.

I don’t think everyone should walk six miles. I do think these teenagers could walk it. I think everyone should factor walking into their daily lives though and avoid using the car unless absolutely necessary.

But losing the weight was down to walking and rectifying my poor diet.

And if I hadn’t been walking I would have been much bigger.

Great. So you were a very late starter to walking for exercise then

No.

I’ve always been a walker. I was a healthy weight until after having my third child and I dipped into really bad eating habits. If I didn’t walk also, I’m sure I would have been much bigger.

I would prefer to take them in really.My Son liked School and did very well.However he didnt like getting up! They will be facing 2 long walks People say it was different and they walked miles each day Forget there is a massive increase in traffic now.

I think they only provide free transport if the school is over the reasonable distance guidelines and is the nearest school

I think bikes would be a good idea, you can get panniers for putting book bags in so they won't feel as heavy. They aren't too bad for pushing up hill. I used to cycle to school down hill on the way there, uphill on the way home. It worked quite well as downhill when you have a time constraint and uphill when you have less of a deadline. I got off and pushed for the steep uphill bit. You get used to it, even in heavy rain. It's only for a month or so though isn't it?

Alternatively, is there anyone else in the village they can car share with?

Be that as it may, but under the circumstances, the need for all the parents to take their children to school while there is traffic disruption is going to add to the traffic using the detour and that is likely to cause a headache for the Local Authority anyway. It would seem like a sensible and logical decision to remove parental cars from the situation by providing temporary school transport.

I'm not objecting to secondary school pupils walking per se, but I do think that doing it carrying the heavy weights they seem to carry around these days is a problem.

(My son, who only had a 10 minute walk to school, had damaged his back by the time he was 16. Now in his early 30s, the problem persists - it has definitely been damaged by carrying the bag. He has not been the only one affected. They had not provided enough lockers at school, so many pupils carried everything (including coats) around all day. He refused to wear one!)

Hilarious. I’m not surprised in the slightest!

How is someone who has struggled with weight gain after having their third child speaking about how the move towards normalising driving short distances is unhealthy, hilarious?

Do you dismiss people with mental health problems having opinions on how that can be improved?

@Thedevilhasfinallycaughtupwithhim 😂😂

I hope your DC escaped the torrential rain this morning, OP. Oddly enough, we normally always walk to school but drove today instead since it was bucketing down 😅.