School drop off C U next Tuesdays

[ItsOnlyRainFFS]

My primary school is right in the middle of a residential area. Loads of side road parking but for some reason a significant proportion of parents insist on trying to park right outside school gate. And when it rains it’s chaos! They will drive at 30mph, park across driveways, reverse right in the middle of the path crossings to obtain some holy grail parking space that saves them an extra 30 seconds walk. They are barely looking as they drive like lunatics to then drop their precious 5 year old outside the gate all the while risking hitting other kids. Year 5 and 6 are allowed to walk alone to school and I really get scared for them when I see this chaos. The biggest risk to these kids walking home alone is not some random stranger danger but bloody other parents driving!
I don’t get it!
AIBU to think these parents are total next level of C U next Tuesdays? And how the hell does anyone get them to stop being so selfish and reckless.
For info I work full time and regularly school run is a stress on top of work commute for me! I leave a couple mins early and account for parking a 1 min walk to school. It’s not exactly rocket science. I just don’t get the thought process that I need to park outside the school gate to hell with everyone else.

What can the school do about it? They're not in charge of the road outside the school. Same thing happens at every primary school, so entitled.

There are some awful parents at our primary school who park either on or blocking local residents' driveways and swear at them when asked to move! It's sad that the school can't have a good relationship with the local community thanks to these twats.

O yes! I live right next to the primary school my kids go to! I've been quite shocked at how people act.
I've also had to make a couple of complaints about people parking over my driveway, then when I asked them to move giving a mouthful! Primary schools normally hsve good links with the local police and pcs (or what ever they are called). I speak to them in town regularly, they would pop up to school and have a chat and monitor the parking.

This. All parents complain, but then drop their kids off at the gate. It always applies to everyone else.

I hear your OP. People are so so bloody selfish. Want to hear something even worse?! My daughter’s school has no parking but is RIGHT bESIDE, literally next door to a huge council swimming/gym complex. The school have an agreement with the council that parents can park in their huge empty car park for pick ups and drop offs. Literally less than 30 second walk from there to the school door. Yet parents still insist on parking on the zig zags and creating chaos outside the school. Trying to cross the road with my 4 and 2 year old feels like dicing with death sometimes. I can’t for the life of me understand it, usually they’re parked further away than the bloody car park on their zig zags. Unbelievable.

We have the pleasure of living in a courtyard round the corner from a school and nursery. At school drop offs and pick ups it is insanity. They will park anywhere they can’t fit and will think nothing of causing a hazard to other vehicles and pedestrians including the children. The courtyard needs constant access for council HGV and ambulances but do they care?
We wrote to the head teacher and tbh he thinks they are all ignorant knobheads who have ignored his every effort to manage the safety of the children during these times. He said they even park on the jagged lines outside the front gates. He despairs at their entitlement.
I think they were wrong to attack turkey twizzlers - if they don’t want fat spoiled kids they should have a look at banning cars from parking within a mile of a school

They think it's ok if they put the hazard lights on!
Heaven forfend a child should walk for 5 minutes.

Regarding pavement parking, it’s not just about vehicles blocking the pavement – it’s also about the damage they cause. My young child is registered blind and uses a wheelchair, and our walks along certain pavements in the area are made really uncomfortable because of the damage caused by persistent pavement parking. Some of the potholes left by heavy vehicles force his wheelchair to tip to the side, which absolutely terrifies him.

I find myself constantly on alert, looking not just for broken area of pavement but also for overgrown hedges, piles of dog mess, and vehicles that make the paths unsafe for him.

These parents are everywhere. When my DDs were at primary school (long time ago) the school regularly sent out emails reminding parents to park properly and drive slowly near the school. Made no difference.
I made the decision to stop walking to school and drove instead (but not like a total twat) because walking was fucking dangerous.
I had hoped things would be better when DS started last year (given that my youngest DD left primary school 8 years ago) if anything it's worse. There is a zebra crossing by the school and me and DS have nearly been hit on there so many times.
Spoken to school who also send emails which the twat parents ignore, because the rules don't apply to them.

Our school has the option to use a council car park right next to the school, free of charge for drop off and pick up with permits issued for those times.

There's plenty of space but parents still drive like nutters through the car park, trying to get the spots closest to the gate (saving themselves about 100 metres of walking). Lots of us who walk in have to walk through the car park and I dread it every time because people drive in and out of spaces with no regard for pedestrians. One day a grandparent got clipped!

Totally agree. People turn into maniacs when doing the school drop off / pick up. The terrible driving and parking are a mix of laziness and entitlement l think

Parking was never an issue when I was a kid, because most of us either walked or got the bus to and from school.

Fast forward a few years, and it is utterly ridiculous. When my youngest left their primary school a couple of years ago, I was so happy - mainly because I would not have to put up with the daily lunacy of parking, and the idiotic drivers behind the wheel.

Despite weekly reminders, and parking patrols, it is still awful. My children's old primary is on a residential (one way) street. There would regularly be around 10 cars parked fully on the pavement on one side, and the other side had cars nose to tail / half on the pavement / engines running / parked on the yellow lines / parked on the zebra crossing zig-zags. Obviously, the parents and children had to walk into the road because the pavement was blocked.

There were a couple of near misses too where cars mounted the pavement; one just missed my child by millimetres.

Yes, I drove my children to school, but I parked well away from the carnage and walked them in.

Oh, and there were invariably a couple of mum's arguing and trying to pull lumps our of each other too. Such a lovely thing for the children to witness.

In an ideal world, there would be patrols outside every school, slapping parking tickets on those offenders. Every. single. Time.

You should ask the council to close the road to through traffic during drop off and pick up times. They’ve just done this for our school and are building a decent road crossing a bit further up which will help parents get their kids safely into the school.

I live near one primary school and take my DC to another primary school. Both schools have been there for over 40 years. At the local primary school, no one ever winges about parking, although it's the usual chaos. At my DC's primary school, the locals complain constantly. ALL. THE. FCUKING. TIME.

The irony is, many of the houses near my DC's school were built after the school. So they knew, when they bought, there was a school there.

I have little sympathy to be honest. Because all of the parking is legal. No double yellows. No driveway parking. Yes, lots of traffic, but that is to be expected for a school in an area with a very wide catchment.

I am very careful about times I travel to allow for the school parking near my home. I do appreciate it isn't always possible to not travel between 8 & 9 or 3 & 4, but there ARE alternative routes. Both of which I consider when going out at that time. It's just life.

The other day a "lad",I say lady loosely, mounted the curb was an inch away from hitting my husband. He looked at her. Then she started screaming qnd shouting about why you looking at me.

If your concerned then raise your concerns with the school.

It always could be worse. We have regular parent in parent violence in our school, on school premise, in front of the kids. I saw the first violent attack only 7 days into the school year.

‘‘Twas ever thus. Back in the day it was so bad at the school where my sons went that special restrictions were imposed to stop cars parking right outside. This was a main but narrow road with buses trying to get past also. Did it stop them? Did it bollocks

You need enforcement. Invite police to the school to come hand out a few fines. They could do a talk to the kids to start with.

I don't understand it either, and it does seem to be recent. When I was at primary school in a rural area, where most children really did need to be driven (I have no idea why there wasn't a school bus) the pub down the road let parents use their carpark and everyone did.
Now at my kids school parking on the pavement is rare (probably because it's illegal in London), but over driveways, on single/double yellows and on the zig zag lines is common.
After I moved house I had to drive my son to his old school before we could get a place at this one. I got there early so I could park safely, but would frequently return to find I'd been blocked in. My particular favourite was someone who pulled up alongside my car, clearly after my parking space, and gave me a stream of abuse when I asked him to back up so I could get the baby in. He did eventually move the tiniest amount when he realised I wasn't going to struggle to get her (plus car seat) in from the other side, but kept honking me. I made a point of being as slow as possible.

Our school provide permits for a car park about 3 minutes walk from the school, but people still park on the road outside, and it causes mayhem.
we have an infants, juniors, secondary school and a SEN school all on the same road, with a number of children from the SEN school being in receipt of transport, so there’s a huge amount of taxis and mini vans driving in and out of the school, so when you add parents from the other schools just stopping in the road it’s absolute carnage.

there are also houses and a few business on the road too.

I’m always so glad that we live 10 minutes walk, so we never drive it. Plenty of people who live in our area or closer to the school do still drive it though, it’s crazy.
i used to walk with my childminder friend on occasion, and you could always tell which of the children she was dropping off normally got driven in.

It’s rife at a lot of schools that are based in these types of places.

contact the council and ask for traffic wardens to be used in the area during drop off and pick up times. It works wonders.

contact the school and ask them what they’re going to do about it. Our local school put up posters, sent out letters to parents and had teachers out and about the front of the school during drop offs.

I'm wondering how they manage in other countries. In Germany apparently they have crocodiles of kids in brightly coloured hats being walked. And they have to be at school earlier too, so in the winter it's low light. They seem to manage.

People are just more selfish and more entitled and more lazy these days, not to mention more stupid. And the cars they are driving are much bigger. Plus there are more people driving their kids to school in other areas because "choice".

Mad reading this, because every school in our London borough has a School Streets exemption zone where anyone is fined for driving down the road at drop off or pick up during term time (with the exception of residents who get issued a special permit). I am a massive fan, definitely petition your council to do the same! (council enforces them with cameras so guessing they can also be a moneymaker for them)

Things will never change unfortunately. At my daughter’s school, the selfish and inconsiderate parking is astounding but it appears to be the same at every school. Pavement parking, parking across driveways and the zig zag lines, parking on corners and drop kerbs. We had a camera installed outside school to catch and fine people who park over the zig zags and zebra crossings and they ignore it, and the head teacher now has to keep the gates locked to stop people parking in the carpark despite her asking people not to as it was making it unsafe for the children. Yesterday I walked to school and spent so much time having to move bins as people had parked on the pavement and it was impossible to get the buggy past. These people don’t give a flying fuck, so I’m not really sure what the solution is!

YANBU! If your commute is so tight you need to screech into the cul-de-sac where our school is and park 3ft from the teacher parking barrier to make it, then pay for breakfast club like I do on my work days. I live in an average town and it's £1.60 with tax free childcare.

Around once a month a traffic officer turns up at our school but it doesn't deter.

Not intentionally trying to play devil's advocate but there is a status element to this. You might notice the most frequent offenders are parents who are senior on the School Association etc. It's largely about being seen and being seen in a position of importance. These parents also often use it for professional networking. I did it myself for years.