Running the Gauntlet on the Nursery Run

Our twenty minute walk increasingly feels like a military assault course. Firstly there is the dog mess which carpets the pavements in our area. I have to check the wheels of the pram every time I get home. Thankfully we haven't had an incident for a while but a few weeks ago I had the fun job of attempting to clean Bud's shoe on the way to nursery without wipes or tissues. A great start to the day. I think our council have been cleaning the pavements recently, and we've had a bit more rain which has helped, still, I'd rather our council tax could be spent on essential services rather than cleaning up after lazy, irresponsible dog owners.

So, once we've safely navigated the deposits, the next obstacle is a huge building site which, in the council's wisdom has been created by the decision to dig up one of the green spaces in our area. This is probably another rant in itself but this was a favourite spot for children to play football and had many mature trees, all wiped out in favour of some new houses. The site office is across the street we have to walk down so a mass of mud, sand, building rubble and mess lies strewn across the pavements, great to push the pram over. There always seems to be some kind of plant vehicle leaving or entering the site just as we're walking past too.

We can usually arrive at nursery in one piece but that's when the fun really starts for me and LM. We walk past a primary school which starts slightly later than nursery so on our way home we hit the peak of drop-off time there. I can only assume that the average parent driving their children to school leaves their brain at home when they lock the front door as the way people park is, frankly, appalling. The roads around the school are narrow and on both sides are no parking at any time. Apparently that means 'no parking, except for me' to any parents taking their children there. Last week we were subjected to a car parked on the pavement across the street from the school. Not just two wheels, all four wheels were on the pavement. It was impossible to get past with the pushchair so I ended up crossing the street and trying to navigate against the flow of children trying to get into school. So much fun. This morning there was a car parked on the corner of the school driveway. I can only assume that the person driving had looked carefully to find the most inconvenient spot to leave their vehicle and parked accordingly. 

Added to this, our journey home takes us down a street which is being dug up, and the 'diversion' for pedestrians has clearly been constructed by someone with no sense of how people walk on pavements as it is virtually impossible for me to get the pram through it, which forces us into the road. The icing on the cake is that this will contribute further to the appalling condition of the pavements in our area which are so rutted and in such a poor state that I often get the pram wheels stuck. The final battle is with our neighbour, who has enormous hedges and still parks his car half on the pavement, leaving around a foot of space to get through. The pushchair is significantly wider than that so we're onto the road again.

I genuinely feel like it is a daily battle to get my children to and from nursery safely. It shouldn't be this hard, just a little consideration for others would greatly improve everyone's lives, well apart from those who might have to pick up a bit more dog poo or walk their children a little further to nursery but, hey, it's the greater good. The best part is that I get home at 9:05 and have to leave again at 11:15 to start it all again.