to think that making children at after school club do a long walk is cruel?

[theDMsaSHAMazade]

am livid after going to a trial run at dd1s after school club.

The infants are expected to do a 15 minute walk through a park rife with unleashed dogs in the cold, wind and rain (and soon to come snow, sleet and hail) to the juniors site, wait in the cold for the juniors and then do a 15 minute walk back. whats making my blood boil is that the after school centre is NEXT DOOR TO the school premises- so ideally they should be dropped off at the club in 2 minutes flat , and the supervisors go and pick up the big kids up. the reason why this didn't happen- one of the childcare workers said she had to leave work early due to paperwork and so couldnt stay on the premises to watch the children!!!!!!!!!! and apparently has had this excuse for years.(this is what one of the supervisors told me.) there is a shortcut that would shorten the trip by half the time but apparently it 'failed risk assessment'. the poor children as young as 4 and 5 were freezing cold with runny noses, and one child was so tired she fell over. when they got back to the centre after a half an hour walk plus a 15 min wait at the junior site, they were all weary and exhausted with runny noses.
dd1 is only at nursery and i feel sick with dread and guilt that she'll have to go through this for a year whilst i go back to uni. she's normally exhausted after a normal full day at school, never mind this :-(
the supervisors are very unhappy about this, they say that their manager won't do anything unless a parent complains. i am going to complain and unleash my fury in writing but i don't want them to delay action as dd starts on monday. i am just feeling so awful and angry that other children have to do this, they ALL looked unhappy and apparently complain about the walk all the time. I'm also shocked that other parents haven't complained but have a strong feeling its because none of them have ever been on the route with the children before (i'm the first parent to do a trial run).
i honestly think this is child cruelty. i am just seething and needed somewhere to rant.

I wouldn't think a 20-30min walk from school to after school care was a huge problem - properly supervised, the staff could make it quite fun, and it's not a ludicrous distance.

But that is not what the OP describes - the situation is that the smallest children have to walk over to meet the older ones - and back again - so no fun destination / drink and biscuits / whatever to look forward to - just hanging around and walking back again. Not acceptable, entirely pointless, and they need to sort their staffing out so that it doesn't need to happen.

DS used to occasionally go that sort of distance from nursery to pick up children for after school care - but that was because the carers would take a couple of pre-schoolers with them as a treat and for them to start seeing what school was like - they weren't doing it every day whatever the weather, and I wouldn't have been happy if they had been.

Cat64 speaks sense.

I am sorry you are stressed about this though, but maybe you could point it out in calm manner (the child collapsing with exhaustion sounds a bit ott TBH)

You really think 2 x 15 minute walks constitute a long walk? Not surprised there is so much child obesity with that attitude. I agree it sounds an unnecessary walk if they could just do it in 2 minutes but it isn't a long walk.

How does making the children walk sort out the understaffing problem?

Id feel sorry for the children who after all that will have to walk home! Walking is good exercise but at that age after a full day at school, they will be tired.
We had a 25 minute walk to and from school every day. And then some of the children i looked after had to walk 20-40 minutes to get to me on a morning and from me to get home.

I'm guessing that one of the workers has to go and pick the juniors up, which would leave one less worker with the infants = understaffing. If all the workers and infants stay together then there is one more worker. Is that it?

If I did a letter I would emphasise the fact that the walk is unnecessary rather than say that I thought it was a long walk. It might be a good issue to bring to the parents association so they could discuss it at one of their meetings. Find out who the chair is and write him/her a letter.

does that not then mean they are hugley understaffed for the walk back, given they then have the juniors??

YANBU
An after school club should provide a warm, safe, welcoming place for kids after a long and tiring day at school.
Of course, 60 mins exercise a day is advised and not cruelty, but that exercise is not appropriate as a route march in crocodile fashion through town in the dark when the kids are already tired.
Sounds like the club are getting the kids to do this walk for their own convenience, not for the kids pleasure or obesity-avoidance.
Those posters suggesting they are cruel themselves because they make their kids walk alot are missing the point:
OP can choose to take her kids for a walk henever she wants, but a forced route march every day which could be avoided with a bit of sensible planning on the part of the after school club is just silly.
After school clubs are meant to replace dowwntime at home. Not be a subsitute exercise club.

OP - cmplain calmly and rationally and get other mums with kids at the club on your side.

Here, here Leln. Someone speaking sense at last!

Can´t you suggest that the little ones go straight to the club & the older ones make their way over?
I don´t agree that the little ones should be waiting around outside.
But if nothing will change, I would look for somewhere else.
It sounds as though paperwork comes above what´s best for the children.

YABU

I wouldn't feel happy about this sort of arrangement, and I would certainly raise it with the staff. But your language is definitely a bit over-the-top.

After-school club is meant to be for fun activities and quiet downtime after school. I don't think it's reasonable for the smaller kids to be going out on a round trip to be collect older kids on a regular basis. Surely they should have adequate staffing to allow the little ones to go straight to the club and be looked after there. It sounds like this arrangement is for the convenience of the staff, not the kids. I'd also be a bit pissed off at paying £x per session if a fair chunk of this was being taken up with time out of the club collecting other kids.

LOL at this thread

Rather over dramatic don't you think?

In Scandinavian countries it is, as far as I am aware, obligatory that the children go for a one hour walk every day, come rain, shine, sun, sleet or any other kind of weather. This happens from the age of 3/4. In the summer time they then go down to the playground where they play all afternoon until they are collected. The parents make sure they have appropriate clothing.

Even after reading Leln's post I am not convinced that this is unreasonable. The children will get used to it, and if the parents don't want their children to be cold, then they should get them some proper shoes and jackets. There is nothing cruel about a daily walk after school.

How can daily fresh air and exercise be cruel?

Anyway after 30 minutes of this so called cruelty they are going to end up at the afterschool club where they can (mostly) do as they please, be it sleep, play, read, or watch a film.

I think your reaction is way ott, even if the afterschool's club's reasoning does suck.

I must be very cruel then because my DCs walk 20 minutes every morning and every aternoon (with me) to go to school and back,whatever the weather as well!

I do agree with you though that they could organise themselves better so as not having to go back and forth for silly reasons really.

what's interesting about this thread is that only one of you has formed their opinion after direct experience with after school clubs (saying that your dc traipses up and down mountains and walk with you to and fro school is irrelevent). and that person pocketmonster, could see where i was coming from.

my girls have been walking everywhere with me ever since their first footsteps as i don't drive and walk everywhere. since they could walk they have been walking to their grans (20 mins each way) every saturday and sunday . I take them to town with me and they happily walk for up to 2 hours, we have a break then walk again. We walk into the local precinct around 20 min each way`and back in good/bad weather (did this alot with dd1 before she started shcool). When we did the after school club run i took my younger daughter who is 2, and because she'd had a fairly eventless and boring day she was racing ahead of the older children and telling them to march as they looked on grumpily. it's all about context: after a long day (which include going to breakfast club too), probably when dd1 is really missing me (i've been a SAHM for 4 years and am going back to uni this sept, so pardon me for being precious), i just feel guilty that my 4 yo who is just settling into reception will have to do this. she's already told me that she'll miss me picking her up form school.

i'm suprised some posters on here think that telling me that my kids need to get out more or bragging about their super athletic children who walk for hours a day is of any relevence. i've taken my children on a tour of southern spain , they walked everywhere and they loved it. they race to their grans every weekend etc. we've also taken them on a ferry to mrrocco and we walked the north morroccan countryside for 3 days. they've been out plenty, thanks. this context is different and many who have replied here have just ignored it.

I did contact one of the mangers and spoke to him calmly and rationally about whether the walk was really necessary and could they do something about the understaffing problem. before i even ventured into the details of my complaint he actually said 'well she'll get exhausted", after i'd described the route and length of time it took.

Other parents havent complained because prior to this sept, a shortcut was used but this has failed risk assessment so yesterday was the first day on the longer route.

The trouble is, sham, you were over-dramatising so much in teh op that it's no surprise responses are blunt.

It is not cruel. 'Unleashed dogs' sound slike the hound of the baskervilles will be hunting your children down like... well... a dog (to quote W&G).

It is not ideal. I would not be particularly happy with this arrangement either. Just complain, calmly and politely.

I think it was the melodramatic way you portrayed a 30 minute walk that made people think you were being OTT. Yes the walk sounds unnecessary and isn't really benefiting the children but describing it as a long, exhausting walk that would cause children to fall over with exhaustion seemed an exaggeration.
If you'd asked should children for an out of school club have to spend 30-40 minutes walking and hanging about outside rather than having a 2 minute walk and then being warm and entertained fewer folk would have disagreed with you.

ok. point taken.

hahahaha cruelty. Preschoolers should be able to walk half an hour. Its good for them.

I live in NE Scotland, where frankly its very cold and very wet (esp yesterday - we had 1 months rain in a day...). Its also pretty dark for a lot of the school year.

My DD is 5 and starts full time P1 next week, she will be absolutely EXHAUSTED after that. She gets adequete exercise, I'm fortunate that she id driven tos choopl and home but she does various sports throughout the week and runs madly at playtime etc.

I'd be really unhappy with the arrangement because

a) - most of the time she would be wet and miserable (yes, the right clothes would help but wind and rain in your face etc chills you to the bone, and she'd get wet legs etc no matter how good and waterproof her coat is).

b) - most of the time its dark, and I don't think that walking children in large groups, where its harder to supervise than in a "family" group is desireable, certain;ly not every day

c) - ehm, you are paying for this..!!! Unless this 45 minutes is pretty much free, then I'd be unhappy at paying for almost an hour of childcare essentially for my child to be walking about and hanging about in the cold, wet, darkness. After School clubs, as far as I'm aware are a "after school home from home" - so the whole point is the children do a bit more playing, some haomework, some relaxing, and some quiet time after a day at school - walking for 30 mins and waiting around for 15 mins is not any of that.

Sorry - the sentance that reads

I'm fortunate that she id driven tos choopl and home

Should read

I'm fortunate that she is driven to school and home

Cat64 Friday 11.18 - Where do I mention September? My DD started school in January and its getting dark at 3.30 then.

OP - well said, I totally agree, people have either misread your post or just ignored your point.