Yes, I Mean YOU

by Donna

This morning’s commute was especially harrowing. I’m not talking about bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic on the freeway. No, this was even more frightening: the daily fight to get my daughter to our neighborhood school, safely and on time.

Things have certainly changed since I was a kid. I walked to school every day without supervision – as did just about everyone else I knew. Today, it’s rare to see a child walking or riding a bike – at least, unaccompanied by an adult. It’s too dangerous. There are too many cars on the road, too many drivers talking on cellphones instead of watching for children in crosswalks, too many people in too much of a hurry to notice they are passing through a school zone.

And the worst offenders are other moms – like you and me. This morning, I had to navigate around cars that were double-parked, cars parked in crosswalks and cars parked in red zones.

Moms: I realize that your children are as precious to you as mine is to me. I know you want to see them walk through the school gates safely. I understand that it’s sometimes a struggle to get your kids out the door on time, and that you probably have an employer who is unsympathetic when you show up late. But for Heaven’s sake – please stop parking in the red zones! You are impeding the traffic flow, making it just that much harder for the rest of us to get our children to school on time. On top of that, when your SUV is parked in a crosswalk, you are blocking the view of the vehicles behind you, endangering the lives of the children who are using it.

I have a novel idea for when you can’t find a space right in front of the school: park on the nearest side street, GET OUT OF YOUR CAR and walk your children to the gate. You will both have the pleasure of a proper send-off, with the added benefit of the peace of mine that comes from being part of the solution instead of the problem.

Donna is a San Fernando Valley wife and mother.

Comments

[SF Mom of One]

We even have fights about this on the yahoo parents group. There is a drop off zone, but because people park in it and then double park in front of it, it is unusable. And by double park, I don't mean briefly stop and make your kid run out. I mean put the car in park, get out and disappear!
Recently parents have started greeting kids in the drop off zone, also a way to greet parents and (hopefully) tell them to KEEP GOING.
Hey, but it's San Francisco, notoriously bad parking city.

[Christine Hohlbaum]

What a super post! We have the same problem at my son's preschool. Cellphones aren't allowed while driving, but I will tell you people in Germany (where we live) are in just as much of a hurry. They park all over the place, backwards, sideways and zigzaged just to be two feet closer to the building. It rains here A LOT, but guess what!? You get just as wet walking the extra five feet from the "satellite" parking lot one row down!

[DrumsNWhistles]

Amen! Maybe the SUV moms should read Dancergirl's story as a reminder to put down the cell phone, slow down and be vigilant where kids are.

As for the rain, no comment. Every time I went outside today it would have stopped until I walked out the door, then the skies opened and poured.

I'm ready for the sun, spoiled girl that I am.

[Mary]

Leaving a few minutes early and taking the time to walk your child in is good advice for everybody. I don't even have kids in school yet but my daughter starts preschool in the Fall and I already know it will be my Introduction to Parking and Drop Off Nightmare 101. Maybe if I start thinking about ways to mitigate the stress now, I'll be taking it in stride (and doing the right thing) come September 1!

[Sue]

I used to be a newspaper reporter and had one community I covered on a regular basis. One of the schools had particular traffic problems so I went out to observe.

I was standing there watching as the crossing guard stood with his sign up in the crosswalk and a woman talking on a cell phone in an SUV blew through as if there was no crossing guard, no kids. It made me sick.

All these fat little kids, too...they could really use some exercise.

[Vacation Mamma]

How timely. I live 1/3 of a mile from our elementary and middle school and have a child in each. We've been doing the drop off/ pick up thing for 7 years now...

My kids walk home most days, and there have even been some years when one would ride her bike, and in the early years we walked. Now I drive both to school, sometimes in 2 trips, adding to the problem. I'm guilty of that.

My problem however, is: why are YOU (yes that means YOU: my neighbor, friend, and daughters' friends' mom) driving so fast, so dangerously? I've seen it coming for years, finally last month...YOU hit me in the drop off line of the parking lot!!!

Thank goodness no one was hurt. But isn't that a matter of time too?

We need to wake up to the fact that being there on time, or getting to the next thing, just doesn't matter when it comes to the safety of our children.

Let's slow down, relax, walk, leave earlier, pay attention to what we are doing. Before we hurt, or worse, each other, our teachers, or our kids.