Why do you (or did you) drive your kids to school instead of using the bus?

[RangerPooh]

Our middle school boys ride the bus. We work so taking them and picking them up is not an option. Our high school daughter gets a ride to school as the high school is in the next two over and has to be out the door by 6am for a 7am start time. Either we drop her off on our way to work (it is NOT on the way, but in the opposite direction), or she catches a ride with friends. The ride home is with friends.

 

[Skippy918]

In my district and most surrounding ones, you have to live greater than 2 miles away from the school to be bus eligible, or the route has to be a hazardous route, meaning no sidewalks, crossing a highway.
my kids walked to elementary and we do a combination of us driving or them biking to middle and high school.

 

[Magical2017]

We lived within walking distance to elementary and middle so they walked.

The high school is not withing walking distance. YDS does sports so I have to pick him up after practice. ODS either rides the bus on days I work or I pick him up on days I get off early or have off. Why? Because I have him strapped into a car seat and we have that time alone to talk. We drive the long way home along the reservoir. He graduates in May and I appreciate our time together. I also keep encouraging him to drive so he can get his license. I know I probably will see him less when this happens so I am taking advantage of our time now.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

So if you drove your kids, what were your reasons?

Mostly because I could. I was home and had a car.

 

[justafigment27]

My kids generally rode the bus to school because they had a short ride … they were usually picked up towards the end of the route. But I picked them up from school if they had a long ride. My youngest was/is prone to migraines and the diesel fumes and the motion of the bus really got to her if the ride home was any significant length of time (and it usually was since if they got picked up last in the morning, they were dropped off last in the afternoon). I was the same way as a kid, so I 100% understood. I hated the carpool pickup line, but having a sick kid every night is no fun either.

 

[VandVsmama]

Kids attend a charter school. Charter school = no bus service.

 

[barkley]

In my district and most surrounding ones, you have to live greater than 2 miles away from the school to be bus eligible, or the route has to be a hazardous route, meaning no sidewalks, crossing a highway.

this is why every kid in our district is provided with bussing-the entire district equates to one single campus that houses the elementary, middle and high school which sits on on a highway but is otherwise completely surrounded by wheat fields. no sidewalks, no bike lanes so unless driven (and it's on NOONE'S way to anywhere) you ride the bus. our stop is the first to be picked up/last to be dropped off-school goes from 8:14-3:05 and my kids got picked up at 7am/returned at 4:10 (they went to and from school in the dark).

 

[amcnj]

My kids walked when a school was nearby and it was allowed, but otherwise took the bus. When they were eligible (they were young for their grade and you had to be part of a mentoring program for the underclassmen to be able to drive and park at the high school) they did drive, so that was for only part of their senior years. We always had a third car, so no car purchase was needed for this.

The town I grew up in did not have bussing. When I attended most children walked. Today I would say most are driven and traffic and drop off lines by the schools are significant.

 

[DisneyOma]

Bus couldn't make it up our hill, nearest bus stop was farther away than the actual school! So I drove the kids to elementary school when I was a stay at home mom. Then I started back to work in the school district. Depending on which school I was at and which schools they were at, they got dropped off at school or at a friend's house and rode a bus with the friend. One year my daughter caught a ride with a teacher at her school because they moved me to another school and she loved her teacher and wanted to stay. I couldn't get to work on time if I had to drop her off at her school first, so said teacher agreed to bring her in for me.

 

[footballmouse]

For my kid's school, you had to live a minimum distance from the school to qualify for the bus, we did not so they walked or on cold or rainy days, I drove them.

High school there wasn't an option for a bus, oldest carpooled until he was 16, then drove himself, and the other two I drove them.