Do you walk to school or drive?

[blossomhill]

I am so, so lazy as I drive to school and back and I only live 5/10 minutes away.
I do have an excuse in that my children go to 2 different schools and I have to be at both in the same sort of time so driving is quicker.
However, it is more stressful as both schools are busy and hard to park at.
I just think I am breeding lazy children.
I always intend to walk and I do occasionally but I only have to step outside and feel one drop or rain or feel cold and hop in the car

We walk when we can and drive when we must - like many mums I suppose. If I have to do shopping while DS1 is at playgroup I have to drive him there as the nearest supermarket is 11 miles away but I do make sure we then walk to pick him up. Light rain doesn't stop us walking but a real storm would - I'm no martyr!

My ds starts a new school in Jan, the parking on the road its on its really bad so Ive found a nice quiet road about 10-15 minutes walk (with children) away from the school, so intend to park up and walk as I really want my children to take part in the walk to school. It would take me at least an hour to walk from our house so its the only way. I have been spotting other Mums walking and checking the times to see what time I need to be there by, I as long as Im there between 8.35 and 8.40 it will be fine.

I did walk all the time last year. The kids moaned the whole way home saying there legs hurt, they were tired hungry etc. Dd (who has special needs - she's 5 btw) would often through herself on the floor and I'd end up carrying her most of the way home. In the end I thought sod this it is so much easier when I drive!!!!!!!!

Don't any of you lot have to go to work? I used to think Mums doing the school run in 4x4s were beyond the pale then I thought... duh!!!! what if they have to be in work for 9am! Should they walk to school, then back home, then get in the car and drive past the school to get to work (late)? Having said that, I walk DS1 to school (he's on his scooter with DS2 in buggy, then scooter folds up into back of buggy), except on DS2's nursery days when I drive then take him to nursery (opposite direction). Plus I am self employed and work p/t from home so it's easy for me to be smug, I can set my own hours..... Still think 4x4s are a bit chav though, unless you live off the beaten track and have to plough across fields and ford streams to get to school.

4x4's are chav!???? apart from that I agree with your post

yes definitely
( hehehehehehe) coddy in stirring mood

Whoops! No offence meant... but they take double the parking space of any other car and apparently are 70 times more likely to kill a child if they hit them. Plus they guzzle more fuel and belch out more emissions.

Apart from that they're fine.

(....unless they have tinted windows)

Is this a new thread?

I think it's perfectly acceptable for someone who needs to be somewhere else in a hurry (not just work) to drive kids to school, don't see why it's another stick to beat mothers with, the fact that they need to do the school run. And if it's really raining, sometimes it's a more practical solution to drive. It's amazing how much more criticism mothers get for being lazy and not walking than any group in society.

But it does make me laugh when I see all these women at the school gates who I know are SAHMs and live within 10 minutes walk and are all members of weightwatchers and all come regularly in their cars even when the weather is OK because it simply hasn't occurred to them that walking is an option. That automatic use of the car, rather than the automatic use of one's legs, is a really unhealthy development imo.

Exactly Caligula. What about blokes (and blokettes) who drive to work alone in the car when they could organise a carshare? Or get the bus/train? At least mums tend to have someone else in the car. I was a totally lazy sod before I had kids.

And driving to the gym to spend half an hour on the exercise bike.... I've done it myself. Bit self-defeating! (blush)

Why didn't that emoticon work?

no no no wordsmith - please dont get me started. I run mine on LPG which is infinitely greener than petrol or diesel by a massive amount. The urban cycle of a Mini Cooper is 25.9mpg (quoted on mini website) LR Discovery TD5 is 24.6 mpg

And Im pretty sure my car don't take up the space of 2 cars !

The it's your fuel that's green, not necessarily your car. IYKWIM. God knows where our nearest LPG station is, it's not exactly a widely-used fuel, unfortunately.

where do you live wordsmith

My children ( 6 and 10) walk or cycle to school together , it's about 1/2 a mile away either down the single track road with only 1 or 2 vehicle's likely to be using it( at most) or they go across a field,If I were to drive them it would take them longer to get there as we have two gates to open and close on the way, they both have good waterproofs and wellies and rarely complain about the weather !I always walk or cycle with ds 2 to collect ds1 as he finishes earlier than dd, she then walks or cycles home on her own.

God wish I'd never said the chav word.

Well I drive, as school is 3.5 miles away up an huge steep hill and being 5.5 weeks off dropping baby no.2 it would take me over an hour.

I also like Jampot have a 4x4, simply cause there is much more space in the car for me, my DS, his mates, school bags, or other mothers and their bags/prams etc, and when no.2 arrives I will have all this myself (prams etc), I dont take up anymore room than a normal saloon or estate car, I am a better parker than a lot of men, My 4x4 uses less petrol than most of my neighbours cars (we have discussed it) I always park in my lines (straight), I dont rush and am never late (late 4x4'ers).

i've been out of the country too long - what's chav??

rough

{http://www.chavscum.co.uk\this} will explain all

Or even this

I go to work, as it happens. Like you, I work from home. But otherwise I'd go on to work from the childminder.

I strongly believe kids need to learn to walk to places!

You can tell we work from home if we're on mumsnet at 9.10am!

We walk. But then school is at the bottom of our road.

DH walks DD to nursery 2 days a week - it's about a 15 minute brisk walk. He then walks back and into town, so another 20 minutes or so. He enjoys the exercise. I collect DD in the car, as I am on my way home from work so easier.

If and when we do move, we will both be back to using the car - as further away, but all being well DD's school will be within walking ditance when she starts - so we can walk there and back (work depending obviously).