School run mums (and dads)

[Markymark]

It's all very well if you have the time but often we don't. Our eldest (4 1/2) is just starting school which is just over a mile from home and in the opposite direction to the tube. Some mornings we need to take her for 8.45. If we walked, we're then having to do 1.5 mile walk back to the tube which is fine but we'd never make work in time. I usually cycle in but she's too little for that sort of distance yet after a full day at school. We can only drive. Lots of parents live near us and have the same problem. We'd love to find another way but we are both working parents and need to get to work.

Most morning we'll be walking her to the local pre/after school club that run a mini-bus to the local schools which we'll use.

Yes, there are a bad arroggant drivers, some are school run mums, some are van drivers, some are Audis, some are...(a million other variants can be read on this forum) ..some are even cyclists. It may be annoying to those that do not do this, but many of us have no choice.

We live around 10 minutes walk from the tube and I see so many of our negihbours drive their spouses. Its a car-culture of laziness in the mornings, not just around schools.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

so at what age is it realistically ok for kids to walk/bus it on their own into school?

 

[martint235]

so at what age is it realistically ok for kids to walk/bus it on their own into school?

I started walking the 1/4 mile to primary school on my own for my second week when I was 4. I went to a different primary school 2 miles away when I was 10. At 11, I travelled the 5 miles to secondary school on my own every day.

 

[Markymark]

I'll be cycling in with the youngest when she has the energy to do the 1 mile return trip up hill afetr a full day's school - this may be a year or two. It will be a lot older before she's allowed to do this by herself.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

so at what age is it realistically ok for kids to walk/bus it on their own into school?

I think I was six before I walked the mile to primary school without a grown up. I was a latchkey kid too, with the front door key on a pice of string round my neck worn under my shirt. Secondary school was a mile walk in the opposite direction.

Cars were more expensive then (in relative terms) and I lived in a very poor area, so they were a rare sight. The streets were a sea of schoolkids on foot twice a day. If we had that volume of children walking again there wouldn't be so many fat kids and traffic would be eased greatly. I think we also had an element of safety in numbers back then although there wasn't the same level of paranoia about stranger danger as there is now.

I'll stop now before I end up in the Four Yorkshiremen sketch...

GC

 

[SquareDaff]

One of the problems these days is logistical. When I was a lad (cue Hovis theme music) as well as schools offering free Cycling Proficiency lessons and a traffic police "test", the school itself was actually within 0.5 a mile of where I lived. Fast forward to today where new estates are springing up left right and centre. Unfortunately when these estates are built there's no provision made for a school on said estate as there's no profit in it. This means the average distance for little Brooklyn/Hermione 7 year old has probably rising from that 0.5 mile to nearer 1.5 miles.

 

[Archie_tect]

I walked half a mile up the hill to primary and junior school and home again from the day I started... first week with my mum and then with a friend four doors along. At 11 I got the service bus to school [4.5 miles] every morning and the school bus home. The school buses often didn't turn up so we all walked home. I usually walk to the office through the park, half a mile each morning- quite often I see parents driving the same way but they have to drive a mile around the park, queue at the traffic lights, queue at the roundabout, queue at the school, park up, get stuck, have to find a place to turn around... Mark, try walking your daughter to school, wheeling your bike next time you get the chance, shouldn't take longer than 10 minutes max. esp downhill, then cycle back to the tube station... and you don't have he hassle of parking at both ends and negotiating all the traffic holding you up- you'll find it's way quicker than driving....+ you can bike from the school to the tube in 5/6 minutes.

 

[Chris S]

There's the same mentality on Sky Ride - a brat meanders across your path causing you to hit the brakes and then their parent gets stroppy. And you're supposed to donate kidneys to keep people like that alive!

 

[Profpointy]

yeah, bloody kids on paths - don't pay road tax or insurance ......

 

[Julia9054]

Walked with my children to primary school (half a mile, one busy road to cross) until the eldest was about 10 then used to walk them over the busy road and they'd go the rest of the way themselves.
Now, the youngest walks 1.5 miles to secondary school with his friends or cycles if he is running late. There are still a lot of parents giving their big strapping 15 year olds a lift though.
The eldest gets the bus 5 miles to 6th form - I cycle to work just round the corner - but, unfortunately, he wouldn't be seen dead on a bicycle!

 

[lukesdad]

The only reason I go to the school gates is to look at the yummy mummys

 

[Markymark]

Mark, try walking your daughter to school, wheeling your bike next time you get the chance, shouldn't take longer than 10 minutes max. esp downhill, then cycle back to the tube station... and you don't have he hassle of parking at both ends and negotiating all the traffic holding you up- you'll find it's way quicker than driving....+ you can bike from the school to the tube in 5/6 minutes.

I still think just over a mile is a long way for a 4 1/2 year old before a full day at school but it shouldn't be long before she's up to it and your idea is a good one. I will be working on her cycling in as its then dead easy for me to cycle in to work as its in the right direction.

 

[ianrauk]

The only reason I go to the school gates is to look at the yummy mummys

Look? I get to chat to them on a Friday... poor dears

 

[martint235]

Look? I get to chat to them on a Friday... poor dears

Invite them to play Candy Crush with you

 

[Archie_tect]

Wow Ian, do they acknowledge you exist? When I started my own practice, I took MissA_T to first school every day.
The mums all seemed to know each other and always chatted in groups but blanked anyone [especially the occasional dad] they didn't know, even after several months, yet Mrs A_T was welcomed into the pack!
Never been more ostracised before or since. I'm not that strange!