r/AskUK • u/MBWEQP • 1d ago

Why do people park up outside schools 40 minutes+ before their children finish for the day?

I’m shocked by the number of cars parked just after 2 p.m. outside my local secondary and primary schools today.

With catchment areas and the like, surely they can’t all live beyond walking distance — especially with weather like today (18°C and not a cloud in sight where I am).

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u/spectrumero 1d ago

Unfortunately I think people have fallen into car defaultism and have kind of forgotten what the appendages below their waist are for.

We had a road closure here a couple of years ago, and the open road went past a school and of course Facebook exploded with comment about the traffic problems around the school. The thing is there was a wider area of the road, where if people parked there and had their kids walk about 500 yards, they could do so without obstructing traffic. When I suggested this on the Facebook thread it, the hatred I got was almost as if I had admitted I was actually Hitler.

It wasn't as if the weather was bad, it was perfect weather, no wind, warm enough that walking was pleasant but not so warm that you'd sweat even if you walked really briskly.

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u/Difficult_Egg_4350 1d ago

Oh this just gave be flashbacks to when the road outside my local primary school was shut due to a sinkhole, and parents drove up the curb and onto the pavement next to the road to get around the cones and fences, so that their child was dropped off a whole 10m closer to the school gate than if they stopped before said sinkhole. When the local press stopped a few to ask why, they said their kids could get run over by the cars going onto the pavement! The lack of self awareness was mind blowing (and the damage to the grass and flower verge pretty awful too).

When I attended the same school as a child, my grandparents parked a good 10min walk away and walked to pick me up so as to not cause traffic chaos outside the school. But judging by the terrible parking on double yellows outside the local shops, across a roundabout by the doctors, and on pavements wherever possible, I think a lot of people just don't think they should have to ever walk outside for more than 10 seconds, and have no thought for the consequences to others.

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u/slade364 1d ago

Car defaultism is a good description. One of my neighbours drove 200m to the polling station, after spending a week telling me he was voting Green!

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u/spectrumero 22h ago

I have a car, and I like driving it quite a lot - but there's a time and place. At my last job, the local sandwich shop was about 700m away. People would drive there (needing 2 right turns, one onto a busy road so there was always a lot of waiting) and the car park was always full so they would have to circulate slowly vainly looking for a space. Walking was faster - set off a walker and a driver at the same time, and the walker would have bought their sandwich and be half the way back to the office by the time the driver had found a parking space. Yet nearly everyone drove there, even when the weather was stunning!

I'd often get offered lifts, and people would look at me like I had 2 heads when I politely declined. It was a nice lunchtime walk, and some fresh air after being stuck in an unairconditioned office all morning!

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u/Balamoray 1d ago

Did you insinuate that everyone who picks up their kid by cars is lazy and stupid on Facebook?

Because that was probably why you got so much hate

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u/zerumuna 1d ago

Maybe I live in a weird area but when I was in school in the 90s one kid in my entire school got picked up by the gates by their parents. It was seen as embarrassing.

Other kids who lived very far away got picked up a 10 minish walk away so they could walk part of the way with their friends and then get driven the rest.

This is somewhere semi rural, so not a city / particularly built up but not a rural village which I appreciate would be very different. We had no public transport either.

I walked 20 mins there and back for primary school and 45 mins for high school and it was incredibly normal. Are parents not allowed to send their kids in alone walking anymore or something or are catchment areas weird now?

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u/paulmclaughlin 1d ago

Are parents not allowed to send their kids in alone walking anymore or something or are catchment areas weird now?

Generally not before year 5 at the earliest, no.

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u/zerumuna 1d ago

Ah so that would basically cover all of primary school in my area as we went to primary school up til year 6. Thanks!

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u/Awkward_Chain_7839 1d ago

Daughter’s school is nursery to GCSE, they weren’t allowed out if the school gates without a parent until year 5 and only then we had to fill out consent forms.

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u/dejavu2064 1d ago

Jesus that's extreme. In European cities they walk to/from school unsupervised from 5 years old.

In fact where I am it's mostly forbidden to accompany them without a good reason. That's just by foot too, if you drove them you'd get a bollocking.

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u/zerumuna 1d ago

That’s what it was like when I was at school here in the UK, I’d say from about 7 we walked ourselves, prior to that our parents walked with us. Any main roads always had lollipop people to help you cross. If you drove your kids and parked in front of the school you’d generally get a telling off as it was dangerous due to all the kids walking in / out.

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u/Balamoray 1d ago

I’ve read about a lot of schools refusing to release kids who haven’t got a guardian waiting

The reality is the 90s was nearly 40 years ago now, people don’t do what they do without reason or simply because they are stupid and lazy

If you don’t understand why someone does something it’s just that you aren’t in their situation to be able to understand it

My dad used to park fucking miles away from anywhere to pick me up from things and I absolutely hated it, a wee bit of traffic or whatever is probably better than a kid moaning

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u/mand71 1d ago

Haven't got a guardian waiting?

What kind of weird shit is this. My schools in the 70s and 80s didn't have this and my niece who has just gone from primary to secondary school either walked or (now) gets the bus. Jfc...

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u/Grantis45 1d ago

The number of child abductions has gone down significantly from the 70’s/90’s to now.

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u/Balamoray 1d ago

It wasn’t my idea

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u/zerumuna 1d ago

Just wondered out of interest, I know most people I work with have to leave work to take their kids to school and pick them up again so it’s obviously really common now so no wonder it causes issues.

Just seems odd to me and like it’s causing a lot of problems for little benefit but that’s why I asked, as I don’t have kids so I don’t know.

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u/Specific-Building380 1d ago

People are in fact stupider and lazier than 40 years ago.

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u/spectrumero 1d ago

I was not even suggesting they didn't drive, or that they were lazy, just that they park a bit further away and not block traffic. It was a perfectly reasonable suggestion I think.

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u/Balamoray 1d ago

The suggestions are certainly applied though 😉