Tag: SUV
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.
TweetWEDNESDAY WHINE: Lazy Parents Who Unnecessarily Make Their Kids Take the Bus
Each and every school day that I leave or enter my housing community around 3 p.m., I spot a crowd just off of the main road that baffles me. That crowd appears to consist of nothing but…
Lazy Parents Who Make Their Kids Take the School Bus
The scene that occurs school day after school day just outside my housing community always annoys me. The generally empty streets become lined with parked SUVs, flanked by a multitude of chatting moms (and occasionally one or two dads), waiting for their kid(s) to arrive via school bus. What about this drives me nuts? Two things:
The Bus Isn’t Necessary for These Kids
With parents who are obviously home around the time that school lets out, why are these kids being forced to take the bus? Schools are not that far away from here. If the parents can pry themselves away from the television long enough to stand on the street corner for 10-20 minutes waiting for a school bus to show up, why can’t they just drive and pick up their kid(s) from school? Making 20 stops in a school bus while trying to get home after a long day at school is not enjoyable. Quickly and comfortably zipping home in an air-conditioned vehicle driven by a mom or dad is. If these parents have nothing else to do besides gossip with each other, why can’t they just go pick up their kid(s) from school?
The Ridiculous Line of Parked SUVs
Worse yet, these parents actually DRIVE down the street to wait at the corner. It’s not like they’re having to commute 30 minutes just to get to the bus stop. We don’t live on a farm. We’re in the suburbs. The bus stop can be reached from any house in the community by walking no more than one minute. Would it really exhaust these parents to get just a tiny bit of exercise and walk instead of driving their gas-guzzling SUVs 10 seconds down the street, only to clutter the entrance and exit of the community? And if they absolutely refuse to walk further than the distance from the couch to the pantry and back, once they’re in their cars, why don’t they just keep driving and pick up their kid(s) from school, instead of parking within view of their houses?
Now, I’m not a parent, so perhaps I don’t get it, but it seems to me that if you have enough time to get out of your pajamas, get in your car, drive down the street, and spend 10-20 minutes chit-chatting with your fellow lazy parents, you have plenty of time to pick up your kid(s) from school and make the end of their day a little brighter.
Those of you who do have kids, comment and let me know if I’m totally out of line in thinking that these parents are just plain lazy.
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