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.

Ask the school to ask council for a school street, but surely some these people could cycle/walk/public transport Does everyone really need to drive?

You're not wrong. It's like the people that insist their darling little dogs couldn't possibly go without their daily walk when it's 30 degrees, yet when it's pissing it down the parks are empty.

Their little child darlings couldn't possibly get wet, else they'll turn into gremlins!

You can't argue with stupid though!

We have issues with the parents dropping off/picking up from a local school on our estate. I have noticed that the council has been sending a traffic warden over the last week who have been happily dishing out tickets (our road is either double yellow lines or a residents' permit zone).

The intention seems to be to dissuade the new parents from doing it at the start of term, so it doesn't go on all year.

The most annoying thing? There's a Park & Ride car park right next to our road, with dedicated drop off places for the school kids, but you have to do a loop of the car park to use it, so the parents choose the permit zone residential area instead!

mine are in secondary now. Primary, carnage! Lorries mounting pavements and driving at kids because parents bad parking bloke the road, parents mounting pavements on corners. All four wheels on pavements.
just awful.
there was a carpark, a lollipop lady, zebra crossing. All great stuff to help you walk or park sensibly and walk. But no. Everyone clambering over the road immediately outside

When o was a kid, school used to open its playground as a car park at pick up/drop off. Think schools should have to do that. I live near a school. Fed up of complete twats parking so emergency vehicles can’t get through, struggle to get on/off estate. Parking on pavements we have to pay to repair then using our paid for play park.

I live opposite a primary school. The parents are so entitled and they drive dangerously. Its infuriating.

This is not new. See why many, many people would never buy a house within parking distance of a school.
Also this is not unique to schools. Happens at one of the places I have to work at. I have given up attempting to park in my private parking bay. No point what so ever. Every single day some entitled fucker parks there. Have to say workmen ( and it is always men) and those with a blue badge are the worse. Tell them to move and the blue badge brigade go ape shit.

I walk past my local primary with my dogs. Same situation here. Entitled nut jobs trying to park, selfish behaviour, reversing seemingly without looking, general chaos. Doesn’t seem to matter what the school tries to do it’s been the same the whole time I’ve lived here (over 20 years), so different parents, same behaviour.

When my children were at primary school, the parking definitely got worse as the years went on. Plus, people dropping children off and then, instead of driving off and turning round in one of the many residential roads nearby, doing a three point turn in the very busy main road by reversing completely over the pavement with no regard for any children that might be walking/scooting along. Bearing in mind it's one of the largest primary schools in the country with over a thousand children all heading for it at the same time.

If I drive past at drop off or pick up now, you see people just stopped in the middle of the main road rather than drive a bit further to find a space – one man this morning decided to turn in the road and reverse into oncoming traffic just to 'park' next to the row of parked cars, blocking all the traffic trying to drive along.

Years ago, my DD was in year 7 and had an after school club so I went to pick her up and there was plenty of parking spaces as it was 4.30 but one car decided to park entirely on the pavement between the school gate and the neighbouring sports centre. Luckily, I'd already taken pictures, as when my daughter and her friend came out it decided to leave and started driving off, heading straight towards them. A girl from the school had come out and got into the car so I emailed the school and a week later got a reply saying they'd investigated, found the parent and spoken to them!

So they are here then but why are none of them posting to explain their reasoning? I wonder..

Oh yes, because they don't have enough to do and can take action against these arrogant parents! A nice please please don't do this in an often unread newsletter maybe?
The people who do have authority are the police, parking wardens, maybe contact them. Photos of offending vehicles on the local social media?
Remember, these are the special parents to whom nothing applies, that's just for the peasants.

I imagine they're too busy at their important jobs requiring their dickish driving

I used to live near a school and it's the road-rageyness of it all that always astounded me. I'm sure it is very stressful doing the school run, particularly with traffic and shit weather, but the parents who would insist on getting as close to the school gates as possible in their car seemed constantly furious about everything and everyone.

I'm not saying walking your kids to school or taking public transport with them is less stressful than driving, but parents who walked their kids to school often looked a bit harassed, but they weren't effing and blinding and glaring at every passing person as if they wanted to murder them, lol. Seems to be something specific to driving kids to school that makes some parents turn into sweary raging monsters.

This was going on years ago when I was taking my children to school. My eldest is 39. There have always been people who think the rules don't apply to them. We had a new drop off lane installed at our primary and the same stupid selfish woman arrived an hour early every day to park in it.

We unfortunately now live in a road parallel to one where a primary school is. They park on roundabouts, over drives, and just don't care. Just as long as they can get really close to the school.

School runs don't have to be stressful

I live near a pre school and they have nearly run into me before. They are awful people, completely entitled!

We live a 5 minute walk from our secondary school. It's absolute carnage come pickup time, which I don't really get as there's a strict catchment for the school so everyone lives largely within a half hour walk (I know there's always a "but but xyz" but for the vast majority, it is a manageable walk for an 11 year old!) literally people blocking my drive and the most infuriating is parking right on the blind corner, instead of a bit further up the road. They also block dropped kerbs and make the pavement impassable for pushchair/wheelchair users.

The primary school is even worse! They have a PCSO outside most days now as the driving had gotten so unsafe, and the headteacher literally stands outside in the road to stop cars being dicks. That's absolutely not her job but I do appreciate her willingness to argue with them!

Fair enough, I don't have children so I will defer to those of you with more experience. My mum never seemed that stressed walking my siblings and me to school, but we didn't have a car and were only 15 minutes away, and this was 30+ years ago. Life seems more manic now.

Parking has improved outside my DC’s primary.

Sadly, many adults and children witnessing a child knocked to the ground and under the wheels of a car has made others more considerate.

The tears and panic that ensued, the silent child, the distraught parent of the child, the strong emotion of the people standing around, the ‘run’ for the HT, the panic of the car driver, the moving of cars to let the ambulance through the blocked road.

Utter, horrific chaos.

@Withthecorner That's absolutely horrifying. Was the child OK in the end?

I live near a grammar school which attracts children from a wide area. Oftentimes, I see parents dropping them off on the main road (an arterial road with lots of traffic), which has dedicated cycle lanes on both sides. Car doors open suddenly onto the cycling path. It’s a wonder that a cyclist or child hasn’t been hurt yet. So while primary school is bad, it doesn’t go away completely…and these children are learning it as acceptable behaviour.

Had this at my sons school - governors wrote to the council, we now have a camera and if you stop outside the school it sends an automatic ticket. Stopped overnight!

worth a shot OP

People lose their minds on the school run

At my DS’s primary they now have a PCSO outside at drop off and pick ups (not all) because it got so bad. People drive the wrong way up a one way street to avoid going the long way round. On the odd time I drive to school because of weather, they’ve actually angrily beeped at me to move and I have to go out and say “Your driving up the road the wrong way”. It’s extraordinary.

Two words. Dash. Cam

I live on a cul de sac with a primary school at the top. It's chaos every morning and afternoon, and on sports day etc it's even worse. Carnage!

Pretty much every house on the road has a driveway, me included, but that doesn't prevent problems. I can't tell you how often my driveway is parked across, pretty much every day. Cars parked both sides of the road so can just squeeze through, cars on pavements and obviously blocking driveways. One neighbour literally had someone park on their drive last year!

And the rudeness if you ask them not to park there.... I've been told that I shouldn't have moved near a school on more than one occasion, by someone that's blocking my drive.

I'm seriously thinking of moving.

It’s also a problem for me at three local car parks when our secondary school finishes, there are parents sitting in cars waiting for a long time for their precious teenagers to walk some distance from the school. It’s not a rural school and there are school buses going to the next town where a number of the children come from but most pupils live within walking distance - probably 1/2 hour at most.

I have mobility issues and have a blue badge but there are certain shops and services I cannot go to between 2 and 3.30pm as there are no parking spaces. I have to avoid booking doctors appointments, hairdresser, optician, dentist or pop to my local supermarket.

There is a Dad near me I call "Dick Tesla" who likes to drive backwards up a raised kerb onto the pavement in a kind of speed-reverse parallel park manoeuvre without looking whats behind him. I had to bang on the back of his car to tell him I was on the pavement with my child. A raise of the hand in a faux-apologetic acknowledgement was all I got. Fucking idiot.

Also watched the lollipop man have to tell a woman in a big van not to park on the zigzags outside the school at pick up time. "But there's no where else to park? What do you expect me to do?" was her response.