The school run

[Lilysmum]

I see the Government have decided to focus on this....

Am I the only person to get infuriated that mums are constantly scapegoated as single handedly responsible for traffic conjestion?

Is there something less valid about going to school than going to a poxy office to sort paper clips into different colours and sizes ? Are the car journeys of a lardy Burton's suited 'professional' geezer who frankly could do with the exercise, somehow more righteous than kids going to school to get an education?

Blimey my daughter is not even old enough to go to school yet and I am still morally indignant about the whole thing

Oh yes lets tell them to cycle to school - as long as we don't mind a phone call from A&E one day to say 'hurry up - junior is in resus with a head injury'

Oh yes lets make them walk to school - just this week there was an attempted abduction of a teenage school girl in broad daylight just down the road from me....

What about mum's who need to go on to work afterwards - they can hardly be expected to walk junior to school, walk back and then hop in the car to go to work....not unless they boss doesn't mind them turning up until elevenses.

Rant over....

If they want us to walk to school they need to clean up the dog sh-t first!!!

No sorry - they need to make the dog owners clean up after their pets!!!

if there was school less than 2miles away, i'd walk. but for now i'm blagging lifts.

I think it's silly to blame mums on school run for the congestion, but I think a lot more kids could do with a brisk walk to school in the mornings in the fresh air. I see mums in my street drive their kids to school when it is only a 15 minute walk and it does make me wonder why....

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Lots of mums doing the school run locally are doing it on their way to work. Most of the others are doing it because they have chosen to put their children into a school which is not close enough to walk to as they feel their local school is not good enough.

A few are doing it because their children have so much to take to school - sports kit, muscial instrument, homework bag, etc - that even a short walk would leave the child arriving exhausted after carrying more kit than most soldiers!

To solve this last problem, I would propose that schools in the UK adopt the same policy I saw in Australia - if it is games, you go to school in your games kit and tracksuit. Presumably when your shorts and shirt are sweaty, you strip them off and have a tracksuit on for the rest of the day. Lockers should be provided for footwear, hockey sticks, tennis racquets, etc as few people need to take them home or this equipment should be provided by the school.

Schools should have uniform rucksacks with the school emblem, padded straps and a waist strap to evenly distribute the load of everything children are expected to carry.

I'm not sure there are any who do it just cos they are lazy. The parking, or lack of it, is enough to put anyone off who doesn't need to take the car.

Also ,someone sent me this link Universal Childcare i.e. all children to be in childcare by the age of one and all mums back to work.

Surely if most mums drop off children on the way to work and we increase the number of mums (it talks about female employment) in work, then we are going to make the school/daycare run worse not better?

I'm lucky - my son's school is within 3 minutes walking distance from my house - so it really isn't an issue for me. Although I did choose the school mostly because of it's location, so it isn't coincidence! But the really nice thing about going to a very local school, is that lots of other children in his class live very close to us.

I agre tta there is an element of sexism in this but a lot of parnets are very lazy.

We have a brand new school with a car park 2 monute walk from the gate. We have stressed time and time again how we want to keep the whole of the front of the school clear to avoid accidents and STILL one mother who insists on parking outside. She has a "4 year old to consider" and sill not drive the 20 methres to the car park and walk. Even if she is 10 minute early she parks there. There are other parntes like this form all walks of life. Until a child is killed by a catr(MUCH more likely than being abducted - lets get some proprtion here) people at each school will do as they damn well plese.

We had a walk to school week and the rate went up form 70% to 90 odd - so they CAN do it.

The school I used to teach at had parents that drove me mad! They would drive quarter of a mile in their big Land Rovers (in a congested town centre) to drop off their one child, and then leave the car in the middle of the road, whilst they chatted to their friends - it caused absolute chaos! (Note, I have nothing against Land Rovers, just this particular usage of them!).

AND robin W, I bet a lot of the Mums going on about seatbelts dont strap their kids in properly - or have them in the front!!

AND ( you can see I fell very strongly about this) I noticed as a teacher back int he mists of time that the abscence rate on rainy days always went up - we reckon the kids dissolved on t heir way to school

While I certainly wouldn't hold parents on the school run responsible for all traffic congestion, I do seem to have a different viewpoint on this to most others on this thread.

I am constantly infuriated by the people who drive their children to my son's school - they seem unwilling to walk at all - so many of them park on the zig zag lines directly outside school, several even park half up on the pavement - so someone with a pushchair (like me) has to walk in the road to get past them. I'm sorry, but a lot of them are simply bone idle - I don't buy this "having" to drive to school (in a rural area yes, fair enough), but certainly not right up to the school gate. I live opposite the local Post Office and on so many occasions I have seen Mums park outside it, go in, then come out and drive the 25 yards (if that) to park on the zig zags outside the front of the school. In fact, one such nearly ran my 21 month over the other day as she tried to reverse into us, and into the main road, in order to drive the 30 second walk from the P.O. to the school.

The school is over-subscribed and 99.9% of the children live within the catchment area - no more than a 15/20 minute walk in any direction.

I can't ever see a time when I will let DS1 go to school by himself - he has to cross a very busy main road where the Lollipop Lady is so there's no problem there..but then he has to negotiate the small side streets around the school where there is almost total traffic gridlock in the morning, with people reversing, parking up on the pavement, doing barmy manouvres in order to get that three feet closer to the gate...and not really looking out for the children on foot who are trying to negotiate all this.

Ooooh...as you can probably tell, this is a real bugbear of mine

At out local junior school parents begin parking half an hour before the end of school to avoid walking 20 or 30 metres. It's pitiful.

But how many of you planned where you live, where you work, where your kids go to school, and indeed your whole life, based on the premise that you would use the car for many or most journeys?

When the London congestion charge was introduced one of the protest statements was about a nursery, 1/2 mile within the zone, and the comment that some parents would have to walk "1/2 mile in the rain pushing a double buggy, which is obviously impossible".

1/2 mile is a 10 minute walk.
And the truth is most people are unwilling to even walk as far as 1/4 mile (5 minutes). The failure to use our own legs for most journeys has profound health implications, but I guess "convenience" is all most people care about.

I'm with you Marthamoo - we don't live close to school. I don't know what the distance is but it takes me 12 minutes brisk walk, 18 with the kids in the morning, longer in the afternoon. For the last year I've done this 3 times a day (nursery drop off too).

I feel passionate about kids walking to school - my boys are not sporty, and at least this walk means they are getting some exercise every day. I am also convinced that ds1 arrives at school in a much better frame of mind to settle down to work ... registration is at 8.50, and they have 1 hr 40 mins before break time. Sometimes he leaves home in a bit of a strop or a stress, but he has always calmed down by the time we get there. Walking home together is a fantastic time to share the experiences and excitement of the school day.

It is a lifestyle choice to do this, and it is costly, but for us it is definitely worth it.

Sometimes the behaviour of people driving kids to school is infuriating, especially in the mornings when they are rushing because they are late.

Does anyone have any experience of running or participating in a walking bus? At the moment I like to have the two-to-one time with my boys, but in a few years' time, I might consider starting up something like this, to try and encourage others to walk too.

i used to live opposite a school. in the area were 2 other primary schools, most of the children who go there live very close, each of the schools were within a 15minute walk of each other, in fact if u wanted to walk from one side of the community to the other it would take u a max of 30mins, so u can see how small the area was. unless the children lived outside the area then in theory there wouldnt have been much call for car useage at the schools. however, the road got blocked, the parents used the car parks for the flats were i lived, so if we were returning from town or anywhere at picking up time, we couldnt get into our own car park which we paid a yearly fee for maintenance as people has parked in there. one time i put notices on every car that was in there that didnt belong to people at the flats. i just wish my daughters nursery was walkign distance, in a way it is, but to get a 3 year old to wlak 2miles there and 2miles back, i can assure u they would be tantrums (and not just from my dd lol)

There's another brilliant rant about this in the Guardian today - you will all love it!

here

Oops, posted this on the duplicate thread!

No, you're not the only one who is indignant about this, Lilysmum - and I walk my dd to school! I agree, it is scapegoating an easy target, and it also presumes mums are all SAHM's, that children go to school in their local area etc. As for the idea that schools should have staggered start times - puhleese! I believe that things like car sharing should be encouraged, but that should apply to everyone who commutes not just those going to schools. And of course considerate driving/parking is important.

janh

People are totally lazy. I never understand why either, I find it much easier to walk pushing the buggy and dragging and autistic 4 year old along with me (and he has no road sense so we have to hold hands). I only use the car when I have to. Having said that I will be driving him to school, but its 6 miles away along a dual carriageway and in a different LEA. Our local school is unable to meet his needs- and the next two closest are oversubscrbed (and outside of our catchment area). So no choice there. Would much prefer to walk to school though- and dreading school run (although we will be going against the traffic).

DH takes the bus to work, but moans like mad if he has to catch it home as he has to walk across town to the bus stop. He is bone idle as well.....!

Wonderfully caustic, Janh!

ha ha ha janh- that's hilarious!

If the school run is to blame why is the busiest time of the whole day 5.30pm? Hmmmmm