Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Thoughtless

Today, I went over to pick WIlliam up from school. It was raining hard and had begun to freeze. When I get there, I always get there just before school lets out. so that I am one of the last people in line. It's crazy to me that parents will get there and sit FOREVER just to be the first in line. William hikes up the sidewalk to the car at about the same time that the first cars have collected their children and begun pulling out. 

So, anyways, I'm sitting at the back of the line as usual, reading a New Yorker magazine. The right lane is for cars. The left lane is for school buses. I see a teacher walking up to each car window, speaking to the driver of the car. I wondered what was up. 

When she got to me, I rolled down my window. The poor thing was dripping wet. She said, "We have an emergency. I'm going to have all the parents move to the teacher parking lot to pick up their kids." 

"Sure," I said, and I started my car. There were two cars behind me and she continued on down the line. 

People, people, people. 

Not one car moved to the parking lot. Probably 12 cars in front of me and not one parent moved their car. Not one car started up. .

I couldn't believe it. 

As I said, I was at the back of the line and so I did a three point turn pulling behind the last bus to turn around. I hate to back up in a school zone. I pulled up to where the teacher was still standing. I apologized for backing up, and said, "Why aren't people moving?" 

She said in a very frustrated voice. "They totally blew me off!" 

To be honest, if the first car in line just sat there, none of the rest of them had no choice but to sit there as well, being pinned in with buses to their left, the sidewalk to their right, cars in front and behind them too, but I gotta tell you, the scenario boggled my mind. 

It was quite a day, weather wise. We had snow. along with some gusty winds, we had sleet, we had freezing rain, we had two thunderstorms. It was a good day to stay inside. Tim put in a couple electric receptacles in our bedroom. He's meant to do that for a while.

I was supposed to take Mattie to an appointment at 1:30, but after considering the roads, she decided to cancel. I wasn't sorry. I had made a pot of chicken and rice vegetable soup expecting to be away in the afternoon. I just used the extra time to bake a batch of blueberry muffins. 

I headed over to school to be appalled. I am not sure what the emegency was, but I cannot imagine not being able to get to my kid. 


33 comments:

  1. I am not surprised at the entitlement of parents these days but gobsmacked that they ignored a teacher citing an emergency? What has happened to us as a society? Have we lost all our humanity?
    I am not a big fan of naming and shaming (or number plating and shaming) but sometimes I can think of no other way of calling these selfish bastards out.

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    1. I was dumbfounded. Everyone talks about kids these days. I think we need to take a closer look at parents these days.

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  2. Do you think she acted in an authoritative manner? It sounds like it was really needed. It would only take the first driver to be ordered to move and the rest just waved on to follow. The school pick up time here is a nightmare near schools for about twenty minutes each school day.

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    1. You know, Andrew, your comment stopped me dead in my tracks. I thought about it. No. No she did not. She came out and politely explained the situation to each parent as she moved down the line. In retrospect, I'd have been right back to the first car wanting to know why the rules had not been followed. She did not do that. I don't think she should have had to mind you, but she didn't and a more authoritarian stance with them would have solved it. (Or got her shot. One of the two.) The people at the front of the line get there very early just to get that spot at the head of the line. I cracks me up. It takes me five minutes to pick William up. The people in the front of the line turn this into a 30 minute or more daily ordeal. Who's got that kind of time?

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    2. I have the reputation at my school of being unfailingly "nice" and kind and easygoing, but even I would have gone back to that first car and demanded that the parents inside move immediately! I agree with Andrew that a more authoritative approach was needed.

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    3. You are right. It did not occur to me, but you both are correct.

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  3. Selfishness seems to be the new world order these days.

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  4. Oh goodness how ridiculous! No wonder teachers have issues with kids when their parents won't even follow instruction.

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  5. Selfishness and ignorance makes the blood boil.

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  6. This is a sore subject with me as well. I like to combine trips to town and will often do them at the end of the day before picking up my kids. As a result, sometimes due to things out of my control, I end up with an hour to spare. I could drive the 15 minutes back across town, sit for 30 and then drive another 15 minutes to the school but it is just a waste of gas. So I will just take a book and get in an hour of reading. I always park in a parking spot, well away from where the kids get out. But people start coming 45 minutes early so they can park illegally along the curbs, fill up all the handicap spots and double park on the near end of the parking lot when there are dozens of empty parking spots less than 100 feet away, all the while leaving their engines running for 45 minutes! All of this so their child doesn't have to walk 100 extra feet! I never understand it.

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    1. Me either. It just does not make sense to me.

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  7. This is a most bizarre situation. I cannot imagine parents not moving in order to help out in an emergency.

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    1. And this- when I picked up my children and grandchildren, I often got there very early. I know I did this because I myself had a great fear of abandonment as a child and did not want any of my kids having to worry that Mama or MerMer was not coming. That they had been forgotten. So there is that perspective.

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    2. I can understand your perspective. The first time that I picked up my granddaughter from school, I was very early. I had never driven there before, and I had a fear of the traffic. I knew that if I had somehow screwed this up, I would never have the honor again.

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  8. Entitlement seems rampant these days. We have the same thing at one of the schools near us.

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  9. The first car in the line should have received a ticket! What parental trash! Poor teacher. The same parents would want everyone to move if it was their kid. Might need to talk with the front office. Isn't there another way for an emergency vehicle to get in besides the spot where cars and busses pick up kids? Linda in Kansas

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    1. You know Andrew's point has raised other questions in my mind. What WAS this emergency? If it had been a real emergency, it seems like more decisive action SHOULD have been taken. If it was a real emergency, it seems like more than one teacher would have been out there making things happen in a more timely fashion. Now I have questions.

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  10. Some people just don' get it. What a rotten day weather wise.

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  11. Selfish entitled people drive me crazy. But it seems there are more and more of them every day.

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    1. I find that I study myself and my own actions a lot. I hope I am not one.

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  12. I am not jealous of that weather. Yikes. People are so wrapped up in their own entitled bubbles that they forget if we work together and show a little empathy things would be a lot better.

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    1. Seems such a simple thing in theory, doesn't it?

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  13. I was wondering what the emergency was if it was so poorly emphasised by the teacher sent out. Also, if a REAL emergency, as someone said - how on earth would the respondents get TO the school. The ignorance of the driver at the front is hard to believe . . .

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    1. Yes. I have to say, I have a lot more questions now than I did at the time.

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  14. Surely they could have backed up the same as you did? Was there enough space for that between the car line and the bus line?

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  15. No. THere wasn't actually. The two lanes are side by side like two lanes of highway. The only reason I could do it is because the bus line was shorter than the car line. I did my three point turn behind the bus line.

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  16. Gosh! That IS surprising. I've never seen a parent act that way in all my years of teaching.

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  17. That is a shame. I would have marched up front and been a little stronger than that. Isn't that awful. Good for you.

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