School Run?....Yeah, Run For Your Life!

I'm getting really angry at the moment with the local 'mums and kids' school run. A time-worn rant, but fresh as seen from my eyes.

Basically I live a few minutes' walk away from a top notch fee-paying junior school, and any time I have been walking past the gates to its entrance, I've felt like I've been dicing ever-closer to death.

Between 3pm and half-past 3, the pavements which hitherto had been quiet thoroughfares for the pedestrian minding his or her own business, instantly become mayhem. Pandemonium. Kerb-to-kerb carnage. I thank God I wear my iPod so that I can't actually hear the accompanying conversations of what's going on.

Most days I nearly get killed by the said middle class, smartly-uniformed school pupils on those stand-on scootery things, riding willynilly down the pavements. Sometimes it's bikes. Now, I had the luxury of being brought up in the country where cycling off-road was the norm, so maybe it's hard to teach a kid to cycle in a "built-up" environment. But as a pedestrian I cannot STAND it when these so called educated, polite, considerate parents actually encourage their 4 or 5-year olds to screech down the (narrow) pavements on their bikes/trikes/scooters. To school! Not once teaching them to brake and get out of the way for other people. It's actually pretty inconsiderate.

Then there's the parents themselves. You should see the carnage that happens as a gaggle of identikit Moms (yes, Boden and knee-high boots and the ubiquitous Puffa jacket) arrive in their convoys of Audi estates and identikit BMW X5s to sweep up their precious darlings. They all MUST have the nearest available space to pick up young Thomas and darling Katie: 5 minutes away WON'T DO.

Yesterday I nearly got killed by one such mother who actually mounted the kerb, reversed into somebody else's private drive (which I wouldn't be too chuffed about), then performed a rather shoddy 3-point turn on the pavement - in the busy main road, holding up traffic. All the while I had to stand there wondering if this woman who was frantically mirror-talking to two kids in the back seat actually even SAW me. I doubt it.

A few days ago I had made it beyond the school gates to the designated "mum parking point" (basically a street that only ever fills up for half an hour a day), only to find that I had to battle my way past two fee-paying school boys who were literally kicking each other's nuts in, as they waited for their turn to enter their mother's SUV. I practically had to karate-chop my way through their boxing match. Their mother didn't seem to pay a blind bit of notice. Tears from both boys ensued and I actually yelled something like "it helps if parents actually keep their children UNDER CONTROL" behind me, but it no doubt fell on exceedingly self-absorbed, deaf ears.... so inconsiderate!

So, to get past the school, I must stand and patiently wait my turn to cross the road, whilst I let the troop of 4x4s and huge estate cars guzzle up and absorb children. Not once do these women (always women, I've noticed!) ever think to be polite enough to let pedestrians cross the road. They then screech off at breakneck speed - seemingly trying to go from 0 to 60 in under 2 seconds - roaring over speed bumps and veering past parked or reversing cars. Downright dangerous. I'm not making any of this up. All the while they're looking in their rear-view mirror mouthing: "AND HOW WAS YOUR RUGBY MATCH TODAY, HENRY??"

I used to think that people from posh schools were brought up to have manners. Now I see they're all just the same, these inconsiderate townie numpties.