Carpools | pad patter 2.27.17

[IntenseMagic]

I teach in a different county, different state even, than where we live and my youngest goes to school there with me. I drop him off at the elementary school and then he rides the bus in the afternoon to the high school where I work. So, no carpooling for me. I drove my older kids to school when the were in elementary and they rode the bus to day care in the afternoon. When they got to middle school, they rode the bus to school and then home in the afternoon where they'd walk about a 1/4 mile to the house.
The drop off line is what gets me the most. I try to time leaving my house so that we get there early enough to avoid all the other parents, like the ones whose kids cannot walk two car lengths, they have to pull them right up to the front door before they can get out.

 

[bbymks5]

I haven't car pooled, but the first couple years of my middle starting school I did pick her up after school (hubby did drop offs)...and it is a living nightmare!

If you don't get in line an hour before school lets out you'll be in the street waiting, crossing your fingers someone doesn't clip your car...and if you're not right side of the street you hope someone will be kind enough to let you make a left into the parking lot.

I will never understand why other parents have to be so rude during during drop offs and pick ups...we all have one goal and that's to get our children to and from school safely...

 

[dawnmarch]

I loathed taking my son to school because a lot of the parents were rude! We always left with plenty of time for me to drop my son off and then I would head to work from there. We had two lanes, the left lane if you were going to park in the lot or the right lane if you were dropping off (which was in the back of the school). Almost invariably, there would always be at least one car that would get in the wrong lane on purpose and then try to squeeze in. I refused to let those people in, because they could be like me and wait in line with the rest of us, and I also felt they were being a terrible example to their children, building up that sense of entitlement that's bad enough. My only exception was for drivers that were coming in from the opposite direction, who didn't have a choice but to squeeze in. Anyway, that lasted one year - Kindergarten. Then we found out that, even though we were less than two miles from the school, every child had the chance to ride the bus because the majority of the kids would have to cross a very busy, 6-lane street. That was so much easier and virtually no stress! Our stop was two houses down from our house, and I made friends with the mom of one of the other kids.

This happens at my son's middle school. There is a drop-off line that loops all the way around the parking lot which we dutifully wait in every day. The people who are obviously "more important" than us, think it's ok to cut through the parking lot and drop their kids off and then cut back into the line to get out. Drives me INSANE. It's not only rude, it's dangerous to their kids who have to walk through the line of drop-off cars to get into school. People suck.

 

[bestcee]

The staggered bus schedules were a bit weird for all of us, the hs going the earliest and the elementary one going the latest with about 3 hours in between those two bookends.

They are currently discussing changing times in Nevada. The elementary will have to be at school at 7, middle school at 8, and high school at 9!

I teach kindergarten usually once or twice a week and we have to man the pick up line and get the kiddos in the cars.

We were lucky enough to be able to use the bus, and be one of only 2 stops, because the drop/off pick up at the public school is a mess! There is no kiss and go line. The kindergartners are let out from 3 classroom doors (2 classes to a door), and they can't leave the classroom until a parent is there to pick them up. One teacher mans the pickup, and the other teacher walks the bus kids to the buses on the other side of the school to make sure they get on the right bus.

I'm so glad we were able to use the bus! There isn't enough room for all the cars at pickup, and the spots to park are just the unimproved dirt on the side of the road. Total mess. Especially since the school is only walking distance for about 40 of the kids - the rest live on the other side of the freeway. Not the safest thing to have elementary (K-5) kids walk over.

 

[StefanieS]

No car pooling for me sadly. We live further away and hubby or I drive every. single, day. At least once each, sometimes more depending on her activities. Cape Town people forget how to drive in the rain, so that's horrid.

 

[cookingmylife]

I'm not justifying insane driving near schools etcby any means but my co-worker and I had an eye opening experience when her daughter was in day care. She had a chance to speak - briefly - to one of the other mothers, one who worked for a defense contractor nearby. Apparently if she was to start work at 8am, arriving at 8:01 or 8:02 was a serious offense and potential job loss. These were not low paid employees but rather professional, educated women. Our own ( (non-resident in our office )boss was hell-on-wheels but we did have some flexibility re time. My co worker said it was a shame to see these little ones almost shoved out of the car lest Mom lose her job over that last hug. (Karma? that company has closed.....)

 

[Karen]

I've never had to do a daily carpool in the sense that the duties were shared. I work from 6:30-3:00 so I can pick my kids up from school (we do private school, so no buses) and once people found out that I had that freedom they ALL started asking me to take their kids home. It was REALLY ridiculous the things people asked me to do on top of just taking their kids home after school... like pick up forgotten shoes or run them to piano lessons or take them to gymnastics practice, etc. I finally had to just tell them all no because I was spending up to an hour some days running other people's kids around and they totally took advantage of me and a lot of the time never even said thank you. It really wasn't fair to my own kids either because they had to go with me to run all over the place when they just wanted to go home!

Now all I do is help trundle kids to away games for sports, but now I get help just as much as I give it because I have two boys in sports in two different grades and there are lots of us with boys in both of those grades so thankfully it's much more even and helpful!

 

[lizziej]

This happens at my son's middle school. There is a drop-off line that loops all the way around the parking lot which we dutifully wait in every day. The people who are obviously "more important" than us, think it's ok to cut through the parking lot and drop their kids off and then cut back into the line to get out. Drives me INSANE. It's not only rude, it's dangerous to their kids who have to walk through the line of drop-off cars to get into school. People suck.

That's just now selfish people are - they don't think of anyone but themselves. Ugh! Reminds me that the other day I saw a car that was right behind a school bus (which I know from personal experience stops at every corner for 4 blocks). Right as the bus was getting really close to the next stop, the car was actually going to pass the bus (it already had it's yellow flashing lights on)! It didn't because a car was coming from the opposite direction. Sheesh!

 

[KayTeaPea]

We don't carpool to school- my older two drive together to high school, and my youngest is either on the bus or I drive her over to her school as it starts much earlier than my older two's school. For gymnastics, though, we carpool with a good friend, as the girls have practice 3 days a week for 3 hours each, and the gym is about 20 minutes away (without traffic) In the past, we have tried to carpool when my neighborhood was rezoned and I had one child in middle school, one at the new elementary school and one who was going cross-zone to finish her last year at her old school. We tried carpooling with neighbors, which worked ok, then after school she rode the bus home to a friend's house, and I came and picked her up. It was a pain!