Reasons I hate the school run featuredBefore I start I should probably point out that I don’t actually do the whole school run: Misery Guts does the morning trip on his way to work and I do the afternoon one. But even so I hate it. And we’re only three months in to a journey that’s going to take place every week day during term time for the next 12 years. Or 15 years if you take Little B into account.

The main problem is the journey: I’m on foot and the school is only partially on a bus route so it’s a 90-minute round trip from door to door. But there are other reasons I hate the school run too:

1. It cuts the afternoon in half. Why do schools finish at 3pm? 4pm or later would be so much better, especially for working parents. I leave at around 2pm and we get back at about 3.45. That’s more than an hour and a half spent collecting. It’s often 4pm before I’m able to sit down at my computer and able to work, except I’ve then got both kids to entertain too.

2. It puts everyone in a bad mood. Parents honking their horns in a bid to get as close to the school gates as possible, mums on foot dragging pre-schoolers who don’t want to walk behind them and the ones who are always late. Every day I see the same mum sprinting up the hill with a look of alarm on her face as I’m walking back down having already collected BB. Why doesn’t she just leave 5 minutes earlier? Probably because of number one.

3. It involves packing a picnic. Ok that might be a slight exaggeration, but when BB comes out of the classroom the first thing she asks for is a snack. All her classmates do – there’s a chorus of β€˜what can I have to eat?’ β€˜I’m hungry’ and β€˜what did you bring for my snack?’ It makes me question the portion sizes at lunch. The food produced from handbags at our school gate amounts to a veritable feast and some days I feel like I’m laying on a constant buffet between the school run and bed time.

4. I hate the journey there. The first part is flat but after that it’s a steady gradient up a steep hill. I know this is probably good for my bum but when you’re pushing an increasingly heavy toddler in a pushchair up it and then the increasingly heavy toddler and an increasingly heavy four-year-old on a buggy board down it enjoyable isn’t the word. Add to that the torrential rain and howling wind we’ve been having lately and I’ve found myself actually dreading the trip.

Of course BB loves it. I should take a leaf out of her book. The walk home is like a mini adventure for her – we’ve spotted ladybirds, collected conkers, smelt flowers and there’s a big stick she found one day about a month ago and β€˜hid’ by a tree which she looks out for every day.

Despite that I’ve been entering those competitions ITV run in daytime to win a car. You know the sort, where you get a brand new shiny 4×4 and lots of cash. Even though a 4×4 isn’t me at all, and if I were to win a 4×4Β the best course of action would be to sell it.

Am I alone in hating the school run (even though I actually only do half of it)? Or do you love it?

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