School parking

People seem to lose all reason when it comes to picking up their little darlings from school.

God forbid they may have to walk a few steps.

I live near a senior school and the picker uppers are like maniacs!

I too have been that person struggling to get my small grandson safely into school where there was literally nowhere to park anywhere near the school and I had mobility problems and was due at work the other side of town almost the same time as school gates opened! I agree that some kind of pull in and drop off zone would be immensely helpful for lots of schools

It's a problem everywhere. I assume more and more are rushing to and from work and sometimes to pick up another child from childminders/other school too. Just my observations but also I've seen grandparents parking badly because keeping up safely with little ones is not so easy.

I remember hating the school walk because so often someone along our route was always in the progress of having building work on their home and it was yet another hazard during the walk with lively little ones.

I think things have become much worse, there have always been parking problems, I’ve never lived close enough to a school to walk, and some schools have had better solutions than others. But I would never have parked illegally. At one school, we had fifteen minutes to park on double yellow lines, I was delayed by a teacher once, and got a ticket.
Where my youngest went to school, they had a brilliant system of driving into the school, dropping the children at various pull in points, driving down to a roundabout, and on your way, but obviously that needs quite a lot of space.

I lived in the country between two villages when my children were little. Far too far away from either to walk, and not far enough away for the school bus, so I had to drive them to school. The parking problems haven't changed, I used to park in the car park of the village hall, there was plenty of room but it was about a 6-10 minute walk. The number of parent s who tried to park near the school always amazed me. A few minutes walk is no problem, even in the rain!
When they went to secondary school I only picked them up in the afternoon if the weather was poor, they walked in the mornings. It was about a half hour walk.

By the way less than 100 yards in any direction there are plenty of roads with parking- just in case anyone thinks these parents are just desperate. They are just LAZY ?

Yes parents on school run can’t be reasoned with nor it seems be dealt with officially!

I live close to a school

They ignore the double yellows and even the zig zags! They double park, they block driveways. The school put up notices, the council have notices and they ignore! The school started printing car registration numbers in the weekly newsletter - unlawful apparently! The ‘lollipop’ man tried to enforce parking restrictions and was promptly replaced! His replacement has been yelled at by patents!! It’s disgusting. Occasionally we get law enforcers come patrol but the come in hi vis jackets - all on best behavior THAT day! I asked why they didn’t come in civvies - “because we then can’t do anything about the parking”. Grrrr.

The funniest I witnessed was two women coming to blows because one had blocked another in and disappeared for a good 20 minutes - the irony was they were BOTH parked illegally, outside my house, on zig zags blocking MY drive. One asked me to act as a witness to what other had said ... yeah like that’s gonna happen. It is CRAZY. Never buy a house in a school road!!!!!

I worked near a school once, and one sports day, the parents parked all across our entrance and popped off for a couple of hours, when it was time for someone to leave, thy were completely blocked in, I rang the school, and told them to make an announcement to get the offending parents back to move their cars, what happened? You’ve probably guessed, nothing!

I do get irritated by the massive SUVs which straddle the white lines in the school car park thus taking up two spaces each. It means every alternate space is unusable for even the tiniest cars and we have to try and find spaces elsewhere. Not easy.
Silly thing it’s a large prosperous town on the outskirts of London, not a rural area where perhaps these huge vehicles make a bit more sense.

Good idea about residents parking outside their houses, school parents are a nightmare and have only one thought and that is for their little darling. Anyone else well.........

Bathsheba
It was a retired’he’

I get your point, I’m not normally so passive, but didn’t want to make waves in the village where my daughter and grandchildren have to live.

I know a lot of you ladies have massive problems with school parking, I have had myself, which is why I try not to annoy anyone, personally, I think the schools should take some responsibility.

Sara65 no-one has the right to ask people not to park on a public road where there are no parking restrictions. If it were me, I'm afraid I would have told her, with a smile, that as it's the safest place for you to park and manage 3 children into the car, you will continue to use that space for the very short time that you need each week.

There is meant to be no parking between 8a.m. and 9a.m. and between 3p.m. and 4p.m. in the road outside our primary school. Totally ignored by idle parents who can’t be bothered to park further away and do a bit of walking.
Threats of fines are never carried out, I think a few hefty fines would make a difference. The local PCSO is never around at these times, too busy having a coffee in the cafe further away or going into the local nursery school and chatting to classes of three year olds about goodness knows what!

Same problem here but appealing to parents better nature is useless, they take no notice our school even brought in a traffic warden to patrol cars parked illegally/badly but as soon as he stopped we’re back to square one. I’ve seen parents square up to each other and that’s women as well as men. All reason goes out the window in the race to park.
I don’t know what the answer is.

When I pick up my grandchildren at their village school, I park a little way away, to avoid the road outside which is a nightmare. The road I park on is residential, cottages one side, including the village shop, farmland opposite. The road is not yellow lined anywhere, it’s easily wide enough for cars to pass, and I’ve get to see more than one other car parked there.
One afternoon while I’m struggling with three children and a pushchair, a resident came out and asked me not to park there anymore, because people needed to be able to park for the village shop. Honestly, there wasn’t another car in sight, I did agree to park elsewhere in future, but it seemed so high handed. I park there for half an hour a week, now I have to try and squeeze into a space, where I can still open the back to get the stroller in, and get three children safely in, with cars buses and lorries inches away.