I apologize for highjacking a spot this morning and interjecting a rant of this magnitude…. BUT FREAKING PAY ATTENTION IN CAR LINE PEOPLE!!!!
For those of you without children, or who have kids older then 25 and don’t know what car line is, I am going to explain it to you the best that I can.
Car line is the devils way to torture you for having children. Simple as that. Ok, ok, not really, but it is the line that parents have to get into to pick up their kids. This wouldn’t or shouldn’t be so bad but when you have 300 cars all fighting and impatient to get their kids it gets a little nuts.
I *think* carline is a new phenomenon, when I was a kid you just walked to school, no matter the weather. It was actually more fun if it was raining or snowing (I grew up in Denver) both there and back. Only a few kids that lived REALLY far away were bussed to school. No ones parents drove them unless they were really late or picked them up unless they were sick.
Fast forward to 2013. Buses in my area wont pick up if you are within 1 mile of the school, which is most of the kids it seems. Parents don’t want let kids walk for fear of them getting kidnapped (irrational I admit, but I fall into this category often) or it is too hot, or too rainy, or too misty or too whatever, and so all 300 cars pull up to the school between 7:35 and 7:55 which causes major havoc. Plus pickup from 2:55 to 3:10. Then you have parents that for some reason think they and their children are more important then you and your kids. OR their meeting is more important then yours, and so they try and short cut the car line drop off system.
This is my personal Facebook post this morning:
Now, for about 80% of the year my husband does car line. So why am I complaining? Because just having to do it once a week will make a person CRAZY! CRAZY I tell you, and ain’t nobody got time for that!
Then a friend posted a link to a beautifully written post which still has me laughing… How To Be A Total Jackhole In The School Parking Lot it is a great read and so true.
I have a few to add of my own in addition to the 17 in the post above ^^^:
- Cruise up along side of all the other cars waiting in line and stop at the school front door, 2 cars deep and pull your kid out and make them walk in between all the waiting cars. Make sure to ignore the teachers yelling at you.
- Pull up at 2:55 and go to the very front of the car line and act like you didn’t know the other 200 cars waiting in line were trying to do the same thing as you.
- Pull up to the front at 2:45 and go sign your kid out for the day to try and avoid car line.
- Drop them off at the cross walk on the wrong side of the road and make your kid walk through 4 lanes of traffic, because you don’t want to take the time to U-turn somewhere.
The point is… these are KIDS and they are just trying to get to school, so PLEASE pay attention and stop trying to save 2 minutes and ENDANGER lives by your thoughtlessness!!!
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The sad thing is, most of the car riders could very well be bus riders but kids these days are too spoiled. I’ve always lived within 1 1/2 mile of elem and jr high, not one time have i ever driven my kid to school. That’s what the bus is for.
I did let my kids ride the bus…..big mistake. Some of the worst offenses happen on the bus! You’ve got a bus driver trying to drive and can’t always keep an eye on the kids. Needless to say, I dropped my kids off and picked them up after I learned about buses. I’d rather sit in the lines than make my kids deal with what happens on a bus. But, I don’t have to do any of that any more. All are graduated but one and he’s homeschooled. Yee Hawwwwww!!!
I have seen people arrive at school an hour before school lets out, to be the first in line. I witnessed a mom years ago, pull up next to the line and holler for her child. The staff held the child back, so that she wouldn’t get hit. An argument started and that mom was banned from campus for the rest of the school year.
Oh. My. Gosh!
Oh, the days of car line……how I miss them! NOT!!!
I’m past car line days but all of you still sitting in them have my full sympathy for I do remember the torture….
My youngest is autistic, and my BIGGEST stress is carline, because people will honk at me EVERY DAY because it takes him so long to get out. He has to do things a certain way, and it is important the he learns to arrive at school like everyone else so walking him in is not an option. But these women are like animals honking and yelling – like they lose their humanness for a short time. I suppose they all think I am lollygagging and being inconsiderate, but we are women! We are suppose to nurture and love and encourage. What the “H” is happening??? Whenever I read a blog post about women hating carline (and there have been a lot of them lately) I think maybe we should all take a breath and be a little nicer! I know there are douches, but mostly we are all doing our best!
Lori, there are ALWAYS exceptions and you are obviously one of them. I would say that we know *most* of the parents and kids at our school and so you quickly get to know the ones that might need some extra time which I don’t think anyone would or should ever have a problem with. For me, typing it out is my taking a breath and not going nuts on someone in car line! It is the one douche though… man, they can really just mess up the day for a ton of people! 🙂
The car lines here are just as crazy, but a lot more people let their kids ride their bikes or walk than they did in the Woodlands. Kristen usually rides her bike with her friends and I pray that she doesn’t get hit crossing the main roads. For me, knowing that the kids made it into the school doors is the first victory of my day.
Anyway, when I saw this I thought of that movie, Mr. Mom, with Michael Keaton from the early 80’s. There was a drop off scene in there that echos in my mind when people are jerks in the car line, “You’re doing it wrong” Enjoy. 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKkZhubwt04
I am right there with you. I HATE car line. My kids go to a charter school and we don’t have bus service from our location so I have to drive them (I would anyway, but still). 2 times a day I have to deal with it…ugh!
I too hate the car rider line. The school is in my back yard. Literally. However, do you think they would let my child come home that way? No. Mine is a walker and I just park at the school, go to the walker line, grab him and go. Very easy but still a pain. In the mornings I go through the car rider line because if he walks through the back he gets all muddy.I know some of you have mentioned that this is what buses are for. In my district the Intermediate, Junior High and High School ride the same bus thanks to budget cuts. My son will be in intermediate next year and I will not allow him to ride that bus. My ten year old being on a bus with 17 year olds is scary for me. I will sadly be a car rider mom for awhile.
I don’t blame you! I’d do the same thing.
Thanks for the shout out to my post today! Imagine being in a CA school district where they no longer can afford ANY buses except for special needs kids..it’s truly a nightmare.
I have to take my son to school 2 days a week due to tutorials and band practice prior to class. I feel your pain. It is a nightmare around the school at that time. And to the parents who put their children in danger making them cross traffic SHAME ON YOU. If you are in that big of a hurry leave earlier. Thank you for the vent.
Our school actually has a campus police officer that runs the car line in the morning and the afternoon. She runs a tight ship too! No one gets away with anything! Everyone in the car line behaves themselves and it runs like a well oiled machine. I guess our school is one of the lucky few. 🙂
Oh that is a great idea!!
Wow, you guys have crazy car-line stories! Our school is probably smaller than yours (500 or so, K-5) but ours is really well organized. We have a horseshoe shaped area to park and make 2 lines, inside and outside. Parent-pick up kids are dismissed all at the same time. You find your ride and once EVERYONE is in a car, you are dismissed by side. (It’s never the side I’m on, but I digress.) There are a few teachers with walkie-talkies keeping an eye on things. Then the buses can line up. Morning drop off is easy too, pull up to the side of the building away from the buses, kids get dropped off one by one. An aide or student teacher watches those kids. Like, not even stressful at all.
On the parent whose son is autistic my son is too the school lets me pick him up at the front office and allows my other kids to do the same there is no way he could wait I would talk to your principal ours approached me and asked me how I would like to pick up my kids
LOL. Wow. you have instilled fear in my heart. I don’t have kids but I have to pick my niece up on Friday and drop her off on Mon. I thought it would be quick but maybe not. At least now I am prepared. LOL.
My son attended Kaufman Elementary which is in the Imperial Oaks subdv. We were too close for busing but part of the route wasn’t safe as there was no continuous sidewalk from our home to the school, so I usually dropped off our son and then headed to work.
At Kaufman Elementary you had to drive past the school, then turn around to get into the car line. Some times you had to drive 2 or 3 blocks past the school and then wait to turn into the school parking lot.
One morning this mom cut in front of me just as I was ready to take my turn into the school lot, after waiting my turn for about 15 minutes. I told my son to get out of the car and start walking to the front of the school, since we were already in the lot. I parked my car and got out and walked up the the other mom’s car, knocked on her window and told her that she had to get in the back of the line and wait like everyone else, that she was not any better than me or any one else that has been waiting in line. She looked at me and said “No Habla English”.
I went back to my car, parked in the school lot and waited for her to drop of her child and reported her to the teacher that was there to open the door for her child. “See that mom? She cut in the car line.” The teacher explained the car line procedure to here in English and in Spanish.
What I really wanted to do was to pull her skinny, tanned behind out of the car by her bleached blonde roots. That’s how crazy car line makes me. After that they got a teacher or a volunteer to stand guard and make sure that there were no more car line cutters.
My son now attends Irons Jr. High. I make sure that he catches the bus in the morning. That is not a drive I want to make unless he has a doctor/dentist appt.
Sheldon ISD in Houston, TX we live 4 streets away from school so for years I drove my boys to school and the car line twice a day. Well this school they have a sign for your car and you put your child(s) name and grade and they would have your child when you to up there. At first it was a nightmare but now all good but I have not been thru the line in about 2 years one has graduated and is now driving (that scary) but off at college and the other rides the bus to school and he loves it. If problems you have to stay on the district to fix it. I am the district pest but also volunteer a lot as well. good luck to the car lines out there.