The Drop-off Drama
How many of you drive your children to school or day care each day? How many of you pick them up afterward? How many of you want to strangle someone else in that drop-off or pick-up line each day? Now is your chance to vent! I hear it all the time from moms who are fed up with the parents who think they are above the rules and in-turn, mess up the entire drop-off line for everyone else. Often times, this causes much road rage, anger, and a very crappy start to someone’s day. It always makes me think of the movie “Mr. Mom,” when Michael Keaton takes his kids to school for the first time and gets reprimanded by every mom in the line screams of “You’re doing it wrong!” And if memory serves me correctly, one mom even gives him the finger!
A plus I have going for me is that my children take the bus home, so afternoons are a breeze. I walk out my front door and the bus unloads in my yard. Ahhh, serenity. Morning drop-off is a little different. Luckily, I carpool, so I only have to deal with the drop-off line every other week. If our morning bus pick-up time was not prior to the rooster crowing, I would probably have my children ride the bus to school as well, but that is a moot point.
So back to the drop-off line. It took me a full year to realize that if I arrived at school at 7:38am, we were toast. Line is long, long, long and we could quite possibly be there all day. BUT, if I arrived at 7:37am, it was like a different world! The teachers waved us into the school as if we were William and Kate arriving in our carriage with streets cleared for us and safety patrols patiently waiting to open our doors. So, we now are always sure to leave our house in time to arrive before the dreaded 7:38am car cluster.
I do have to scowl though at the few parents who pull off on the main road and dump their children out there. Why is it that they do not have to follow the rules and go through the line like everyone else? I don’t care that your child is old enough to cross the street on his own. It is #1 dangerous, #2 rude, and #3 if we all did what you did, it would be massive chaos! Do you have a secret job or responsibility that is so much more important than ours? Why must you stop nicely flowing traffic to let off your child in the middle of the street? And why has no one of any authority even seen them do this and given them a lecture?
I have many more drop-off drama stories from preschool days, but I will let you do the venting instead! What’s your beef?
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