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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that mums on the school run can be shockingly bad drivers?

37 replies

nikki1978 · 08/10/2009 07:40

I swear this week I have nearly been involved in some homicidal road rage incidents! These women seem to be so intent on getting their kids to school that they are completely unaware of everyone else on the road and the rules of the road too. Yesterday I pulled over slightly to let some other cars through in a narrow road with cars parked either side (more mothers of course) and 5 people decided to over take me so the other cars couldn't get through and I was stuck there fuming!

They park in front of peoples drive ways, pull up on the yellow zig zags in front of the school, rarely seem to say thank you - arrrgghhh! I am driving my kids to school too - I normally walk but the weather has been horrible this week - but I can remain a good driver even though I am in a rush too.

Bloody women drivers!

OP posts:
dexter73 · 08/10/2009 08:52

Totally agree with you. When I used to walk my daughter to school we used to cross at the traffic lights and it was always mums going to the school who ran the red light!

ChopsTheDuck · 08/10/2009 09:00

yep, yanbu one hit me yesterday!

itsmeolord · 08/10/2009 09:02

YABU. There are bad drivers everywhere, it is not confined to the school run.

I drive loads for my job, I see shockers all the time at varying times of day and different genders driving.

starwhores · 08/10/2009 09:05

I have to drive to school but we always leave really early so that the dcs have a bit of a walk to school, shit for the environment but great for them. I don't get why people don't leave earlier if they have to drive to school, avoid the rush. I wish the traffic wardens would spend less time on huge roads that stop traffic during rush hour (that cause no harm) and more around schools!

BooingTheBestICan · 08/10/2009 09:06

Outside our local junior school is a nightmare at dropping off/picking up time.

Basically its a long street with some blind bends on it,one side is houses with driveways & the side with the school on has the school & terraced cottages & houses with no drives,so what the parents do is park outside the houses with no drives on the road or pavement if they fancy.

Then the latecomers will park on the driveways on the houses opposite & then because they are rushing to get off their drives before the home owners kick off they zoom onto the road without looking & its a blinkin rat race!

The council are going to turn it into a one way road because of it.

Someone i know's parents lives in the house that gets people parking in their drive every day & they are not happy about it but whenever they say anything to them they just get told oh i wont be a minute whats your problem?

starwhores · 08/10/2009 09:06

stop parking not traffic....doh!

BonsoirAnna · 08/10/2009 09:11

Totally agree with the OP! There are some scarily damaged 4x4s at the school gate.

MintyCane · 08/10/2009 09:14

YANBU I saw a woman knock a boy off his bike this week. She jumped out to check he was ok leaving her car blocking all other traffic. He was OK apart from a cut lip but did have blood all over his face. Then hopped back in the car and drove off because she "didn't want to be late for school" She didn't even help him up and his bike was ruined ! Another woman I know told me she lives ten mins from school. So why was she driving anyway ?

Bathsheba · 08/10/2009 09:18

We plan our mornings so that we have plenty of time - plenty of time to get there and time to park in an actual space and walk to the school from where we are parked.

We have a new school beiong built at the moment next door to our current one, and the parking and traffic is awful at the moment because of the building site. We have community wardens round every morning and afternoon checking on the parking as people block the road and park on corners etc.

I actually think the worst offenders are the Mums of the slightly older children who drop off and then don;t move for 5 minutes "just in case" - I'm a P1 Mum and I park andthen walk my child in, ensure she is fine, and then walk back to the car. Every day I see cars with Mums/Grans just sitting in them in case the child comes back to the car. There would be less parking problems if they moved on...

ShauntheSheep · 08/10/2009 09:26

Sorry but I think YABU. IMO and E Dads doing the school run are FAR worse than the mums. Had a dad once that stopped his car in the middle (yes the middle, no attempt to park at all) of the Old Bromptom Road in London and get out to escort his precious child into school and he really couldnt see why there would be a problem with this!!!

At the school my daughter goes to the dads attitude towards blocking drives is much worse than the mums esp the ones with the 'I'm bigger than you so what you gonna do about it' attitude.

While there are bad drivers everywhere I do think that the school run brings out the worst in drivers and is thus a very dangerous time to walk or cycle.

LouIsAWeetbixKid · 08/10/2009 09:33

I totally agree with the OP. No consideration for others. We are lucky to have a carpark, albeit small. The take up two spaces, do not move for others, chat through windows and hold up traffic and god forbid they not walk thier DC's to their classroom so they can chat and show off with the other yummy mummies!!!
This is kind of my bugbear and can rant for hours.

MovingOutOfBlighty · 08/10/2009 09:38

YANBU .They are generally blind to anything apart from getting their DCs to school. I have seen some right loons on the school run.

Bizarrely, they also seem to forget that once their precious DCs are out of the car they become pedestrians and so are vulnerable to the kind of f*ck-witted driving from other mums.

Leave a bit earlier ladies and you won't have to rush!

Miggsie · 08/10/2009 09:39

Yes.
there should be an extra driving test for anyone buying a huge 4x4 which includes parking tests.

Women so tiny they can barely see over the steering wheel of said 2 ton monsters should be banned.

My DD doesn't even reach the top of the bonnet of the huge BMW thing one of the mothers drives at our school, how can she possibly see even 10% of the kids who are walking to school when they are not visible through the back window?

I always assume the driving of these cars will be appalling, and it generally is.

Although the prize goes to the woman who drives a convertible BMW, she whips down the road then swerves across the road, mounts the pavement and parks facing the wrong way, on the pavement, on double yellow lines. She once nearly ran into me and DD. I was so tempted to scream at her, but prats never admit they are prats. Amusingly DD said in a loud voice "that was dangerous mummy", which she must have heard, as she had the top down.

ABetaDad · 08/10/2009 09:51

nikki1978 - YANBU as a none driver and walk DSs to school I find the behaviour of people on the school run utterly mystifying and terrifying. The monster 4 x 4 is prevalent at DSs school.

Leaving it too late and rushing is the biggest issue. Not sure it is just mums but obviously they represent the majority on the school run. Was once nearly killed on a pelican crossing as a mum in a 4 x 4 was tailgating a bus and decided to pull out and 'floored it' to overtake when the bus slowed down to stop at the red light. She had no idea there was a pelican crossing there. Did not see me before it was too late. Missed me and DSs by a hairs breadth as I jumped backwards. She could not stop.

Miggsie - I hope I am not being a sexist to say I totally agree with you on small women in big 4 x 4 that just cannot park or reverse them. One such woman hit DS1 when he walked down the pavement and she careered out of a side gate across the pavement because she could not put the 4 x 4 in reverse and went forward instead of backwards.

legspinner · 08/10/2009 09:59

Yep, appalling driving in our neck of the woods too....from mums and dads both, but almost ALWAYS by 4x4 drivers. A friend of mine was recently yelled at by a dad as he parked his 4x4 on the pavement and nearly hit her and her DCs (he couldn't see them...too far off the ground) after she had the temerity to say "excuse me, you almost hit us".

It got so bad round my DC's primary school (narrow street, windy road, sunstrike on sunny wet mornings) that the PTA sent notes home asking drivers to be more considerate (no parking on pavements or across driveways, no short cuts though the petrol station and thus going through the red light next to it no U-turns near the entrance etc) but it didn't seem to make much difference.

ABetaDad, your story rings a bell, several times we have almost been hit by drivers overtaking buses who have stopped at the pedestrian crossing on the way to school...
I try to drive the DCs to school as little as possible as it's way too stressful!

Monsterspam · 08/10/2009 10:31

It's ridiculous. Most women (and quite a few men) drivers seem to have this little bubble around them and as long as they're ok, no one else matters.

Is no one taught to drive by watching other people/cars any more? Had this conversation with my grandmother the other day (who is a fab driver). We were both saying that when driving we're watching about 5 cars ahead so we know what's going to happen. Unfortunately most people only seem to watching the car in front, creating tailgating, late braking, etc, etc.

Grrr.

shergar · 08/10/2009 11:51

YANBU. The drivers of 4x4s are far and away the worst, and I have a theory that you only buy that kind of car because you are profoundly selfish, which is reflected in their driving as if they are the most important person on earth and have no regard for the pedestrians whose lives they endanger

kreecherlivesupstairs · 08/10/2009 12:15

I think YABaBU. It isn't only women on school runs, some people are just hopeless drivers who don't take sufficient care. I generally have the old man who parks behind us in our underground garage bumping into my car as he reverses. I have the dilemma of whether or not to report im to the police. I don't think he has a driving licence and it is the Swiss way to report everything.

Bramshott · 08/10/2009 12:23

I think generally, many people are quite selfish and blinkered when they are behind the wheel of a car.

Ivykaty44 · 08/10/2009 12:29

legless mothers live around here

They park on corners all over the pavements and race down the road to then brake and waste petrol.

ATM there are hugh traffic jams due to one road being closed two towns come to stand still at 8.30am and literally you can walk faster than any of the cars

Yet they still get there car out rather than do it the quick way and walk?

nightmareonELMstreet · 08/10/2009 12:46

YANBU. We regularly get blocked in our drvieways while mostly mothers drop their children at the school opposite us...yes a lot of them in 4x4s.

What gets to me the most is the shocking rudeness of the parents when they are asked to move their cars. How can people think that is a good example to set their children?

In a couple of years my son will hopefully be going to the school... should be fun

katiestar · 08/10/2009 13:08

What about the dads .are they all good drivers ?

PVish · 08/10/2009 13:09

are you jeremy vine?

PVish · 08/10/2009 13:10

yes I like the way the men say the women are such bad drivers YET seem happy enough to put their kids in teh car.
If it wasnt the case maybe the MEN can juggle pe kits, notes, violins, sandwiches and trying to look like a yummy fucking mummy and do the school run?

breathe

crumpet · 08/10/2009 13:14

YANBU. There are some shocking school mum dirvers.

BUT there are also some shocking school dad drivers, lorry drivers, white van drivers, commuter traffic drivers, teenage drivers, elderly drivers and in any other driving demographic - not confined to school mums!

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