WEDNESDAY WHINE: Not-So-Lazy Parents – An Anti-Whine
Normally I reserve Wednesdays for whining about something fairly trivial in life. Today, I’m taking this opportunity to post an update to a previous whine about the group of “lazy” parents that would drive their SUVs to the edge of our housing community in order to pick up their kids from the school bus. Call it an “anti-whine”, if you will. As I returned home from getting lunch today, I spotted…
Not-So-Lazy Parents Walking Their Kids Home
I was pleasantly surprised to only find one SUV parked just outside the community gate today. Other than that one “lazy” parent, I happy to see several parents walking their children from the bus stop to their homes.
Did my previous post about the absurdity of driving an SUV 100 feet down the road to pick up kids from a school bus have an effect on them? Highly unlikely. So why the change of routine? Why did I see parents today walking with their kids instead of driving them?
Today is a very nice day. It’s not hot, but not cold. No clouds in the sky. There’s even a slightly cool breeze. Could that be it? Maybe.
Or is it the economy? Perhaps these parents realized that wasting gas by starting their cars, driving down the street, idling, and then turning around and driving back home wasn’t worth it. But I doubt it.
My guess is that I simply saw a different group of parents. Today is Wednesday and that means some schools let out early at 2 p.m. I returned home from getting lunch at around 2:20p.m., so I likely saw the latter half of kids being taken home. It’s entirely possible that the gossip-filled SUV-idling group already came and left. I can’t say for sure.
But either way, since the last post had so many comments (some not so happy with me), I figured it would be a good idea to update the situation on here and say that not ALL parents in my neighborhood are “lazy.” Just a few.
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I think this is a very interesting topic. I am not a parent but I went to 7 different schools during my school days so I have experienced various school setups. I spent many of the years being dropped off and picked up from school because there was no direct link from my home to the school’s location. None of the k-6 schools that I got dropped off and picked up from had a specific drop off/pick up area and they still don’t. I don’t actually know of any school with a setup that ensures right kid with right car! It is a free for all (public, private or catholic).
I would say 98% of schools here do NOT have a specific bus service of any kind and there are no schools with a bus that stops at a house. The kids just get the normal bus and normal train (no matter how expensive the school).
I went to a private school in 5th grade and to get there I had to get a bus to the station, get a packed train for 40mins and then walk for 15mins. I did get driven about 30% of the time because of early orchestra or because I was exhausted but that travel time was 50mins to an hour in peak hour traffic. The one school (grades 8-10) I went to that did have a specific bus, it was a bus service that just happened to go to my area that serviced 3 schools.
Grades 11 and 12 I was at a different private school which does NOW have a specific drop off pick up but of the kids who don’t get picked up I would estimate 85% get the train, 5% walk and 10% get a local bus service. This school now costs about $18000 a year and there is still no ‘school bus’. If you want direct you need to get picked up by a parent.
I do think these parents have made an odd choice because I would have given anything to have a direct bus from school stop 1 minute walking distance from home and meeting my mum at it and walking.
Ricky,
I have read both of your posts on parents. I guess that it all depends on the specific situation of that family. I know many parents that live near school, yet they pick up their kids in the car…because they’re getting off work. There are some parents that pick up their kids from the elementary down the street…but they have to go straight to Jr. High, and some to “both” Jr. High & High School to pick up their other kid/s right after picking up their grade school kids. As for me; I sometimes drive 2 short blocks to school for my grade school son if my baby girl has made me late after vomiting or having explosive diarrhea or if she is terribly inconsolable due to teething…or even if the weather is bad and I don’t want her to get sick. And then there are some parents who are just plain lazy. I don’t always make sense while writing, but I hope this explains a little about some reasons some parents will drive a short distance to pick up their kids from school :)