Friday, February 5, 2010

The Drop Off Line

I share drop off and pick up duties with a couple of neighbors. Usually, when the weather is nice, I like to walk the kids to school. Extra exercise is good for all of us, right? But when the weather is a little colder and possibly rainy I get lazy and drive them down.

Our school has 2 drop off zones. One, you must drive into the parking lot and go through the turnaround, then let your kid/s out. I never do that one. Takes too long. Zone 2 is easier, faster, but I have a feeling that it is much more STRESSFUL.

The rules for Zone 2 are easy: drive up to the curb marked "Drop Off Zone", let your kids out, pull left out into the regular lane of traffic. This is easily done in a long line of cars, about 8-10 cars at a time. However, efficiency is lost when the douchbags uninformed come around.

Douchbag #1: The driver talking on their cell phone. Since they are not paying attention to the hundreds of children, they stop where ever they want, thereby stopping the 8-10 car flow up to the curb.
Douchebag #2: The "I'm late for work" driver. They speed around the normal line of cars and cut in line at the first sign of someone leaving. Like that 2 seconds is going to make a difference.
Douchebag #3: The driver that can't read or follow regular rules of the road. Just before the drop off zone is a RED CURB and signs that read NO PARKING OR STOPPING AT ANY TIME. These drivers think that the rules don't apply to them, so they stop there and seriously impede traffic flow down to the regular drop off zone.
Douchebag #4: The person that has to walk their child into the school, from a no parking zone, and have to cut across drop off traffic, not in a crosswalk. Nice example.

I find it fascinating that no matter how often the office reiterates the rules in the newsletters the problem never stops. Seriously. The only time it is ever better is when the police decide to hang out in the morning or afternoon, and then it only lasts while they are there. Then it's back to normal by that afternoon or the next morning.

Why do people think that the rules don't apply to them? What drop off/pick up rules are routinely broken at your school? Do you break them?

Headless Mom

11 comments:

Mommy, I'm Home said...

The Midge usually takes the bus, so I don't have to deal with the drop-off lane maniacs. However, a couple weeks ago, I was almost run over by another parent in the drop off lane even though I was crossing in the cross walk. Almost run over as in the guy's bumper touched my knee... So I feel your pain.

Tracey said...

I thought this only happened at our school...what's even better....the teacher that has duty by drop off areas gets called horrible names for trying to make the kids follow the crosswalk (no don't run across the street) rules. Or the guy coming in the drop off areas the wrong way....yah nice!

OCMomActivities - Katie said...

Um... do our kids go to the same school? Cause I swear it is exactly the same (with two drop-off zones!).

Me- I park at the parking lot for the park down the street (about 1 block away) and walk the kids in to school EVERY morning. Tornadoes or not (true story here in OC!).

And guess what, my kids arrive safe and sound AND on time everyday. LOL. And I can talk on my cell (mostly I just check emails) while I walk them in without stopping traffic. ;)

Great post! Can we post it at the drop-off zones?

Natasha said...

LOL love yr descriptions of the drivers. I can't stand it when ppl talk on their mobile phones while driving. So dangerous.

Nelson's Mama said...

I've been in drop-off/pick-up purgatory since 1997 - I have three years more years until my youngest daughter can drive and I CANNOT wait.

My favorite was the morning that I waited for a mom to make a ponytail in the car, at the VERY front on the line.

Anonymous said...

Hunky drops off the rugrats now, but I did it last year. I'm'a tell ya my take on it, and tell you ahead of time that he says it's still like this but WORSE.

Try to picture this: You're sitting at the red light at the intersection. The street in front of you is one of the busiest streets in Cedar Rapids. The school is on your left. There is no place to pull into on the right. Most people go through the light, drive two blocks, turn right, turn around, pull back out into the street the other way to pull up next to the school and let the kids out. There's even a couple teachers out there to help the littlest kids out of the car and shoo them into the school. Usually it runs like clockwork. Until you get the one douchecanoe (I shamelessly stole that from The Blogess) with this grand sense of entitlement (I don't have to do what everyone else is doing OH NO I DON'T because I'm MUCH BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE HERE) that stops in front of the school and lets their freakin' KINDERGARTNER out in the middle of a very busy street and expects them to cross traffic all by themselves. Sometimes, like once a week, a cop is sitting up the block watching for these losers, and it's ok that day but the rest of them time... oh, it's enough to make your head explode. You're going to subject your small child to danger to save yourself about one minute?! Really?!?! *facepalm*

Dalia (Generation X Mom) said...

Love this! Perfect humor for today! Thank you for that laugh! Can't wait to read more of your blog!

Rocks In The Wash said...

Nothing makes me more NUTS than to have the idiots make themselves look even worse by not understanding the rules!

Miss ya! A

Liz@thisfullhouse said...

Heh, Douchebags of the world unite...in the pick-up and drop-off zones.

Two women got into a fight, right in the carpool lane, a couple of months ago!

Then again, I live in Jersey.

Karen Bodkin said...

I was just saying to Daren that our school mentions similar rules in every newsletter. Yet I see the same people breaking the rules, every day. OY.

Anonymous said...

OMG we have the same problems at our school. It makes me so mad. I wish I had the time to stand outside in the drop off line with an air horn.