You can't stop in on your child's field trip?

[Anonymous]

Either take the day off or let them have their fun without you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can the school really control who else is there at a public venue? I say go and join your kid.

Read what has been said. Of course anyone can go to a public venue.

Everyone can't tag along with a school group, depending on the school. It's not about just one kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are some parents who are legally not allowed to have contact with their children.

So little Larla is on a field trip to the museum and her mom, who is legally not allowed contact, shows up. "It's ok. I'm Larla's mom" she says to Suzy's mom, who is Larla's assigned chaperone.
Larla and her mom walk off to "go look at the dinosaurs" or whatever and are never seen again.

Kids stay with their chaperones no matter who else shows up. But you make a valid point... this could happen.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like Suzy's mom should never be a chaperone again...and who lets kids walk off with anyone from the group during a field trip? Did Suzy's mom get a background check?

I think the original post was that the mom wanted to temporarily join the group, not separate her child from it. Personally, I don't see the harm.

[Anonymous]

I suppose no one can keep you out of the museum. But this is incredibly disrespectful to those in charge, and potentially very disruptive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately due to my work schedule I can't take the whole day off from work to help chaperone my daughters field trip next week, so I was thinking about stopping in since the field trip is downtown and my job is downtown. I have no intention of separating my daughter from the chaperone/group she is assigned by the school and was just planning tagging along. When I casually mentioned this to another mom she told me that our school has a very strict policy on this and the teachers will ask you to leave if you show up without being an official chaperone. I checked with the front office of our school and it turns out the mom was right...but can the school really enforce this? It's a museum which is open to the public. Also, wouldn't the teachers/chaperone's appreciate an extra set of eyes for a bit?

You aren't going as a random person, you plan to tag along. Our school did the same thing. If you weren't signed up you couldn't tag along.

No, the teachers don't want an "extra set of eyes" they haven't planned for.

seriously?

[Anonymous]

Before I read all this I would have said "go" without skipping a beat. But now I think I would reconsider...sounds like there's a lot of strong opinions against it and you are risk of being THAT mom if you do...sorry!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are some parents who are legally not allowed to have contact with their children.

So little Larla is on a field trip to the museum and her mom, who is legally not allowed contact, shows up. "It's ok. I'm Larla's mom" she says to Suzy's mom, who is Larla's assigned chaperone.
Larla and her mom walk off to "go look at the dinosaurs" or whatever and are never seen again.

Kids stay with their chaperones no matter who else shows up. But you make a valid point... this could happen.

The kid did not stay with his chaperone in the thread on DCUM started by the mom who stalked her son's field trip, removed him from the location and took him out to lunch and home, all to prove her theory that field trip security was terrible. If you haven't read that thread, OP, do. Of course you aren't looking to pull the idiot stunt that mom (abetted by her MIL!) pulled, but it does serve to illustrate how a parent just showing up is distracting to the child.

In your case OP, I'd sign up as an official chaperone if they let you do that while getting to and from the location on your own. Our school did that.

[Anonymous]

OP, why would you push this? What's the point?

[Anonymous]

My dad did this on a field trip - he worked downtown and met us at a museum, and hung out with my group of kids for a bit. It worked out really well since there were no other male chaperones and the teachers needed a male chaperone to escort the boys (preschool aged) to the bathroom.

Everything worked out fine, and it was nice for me to have an extra set of eyes on 3 4-year old boys who all wanted to be in different places in a gigantic museum.

[Anonymous]

Did you read the post on here not too long ago where the mom showed up, kidnapped her own kid and timed the school to see how long they took to call her? She wanted to prove a point that kids were not closely supervised. There are a lot of crazy parents out there.

[Anonymous]

For the last field trip I chaperoned, a whole bunch of parents who were not selected met us at the place. The teachers knew the other parents would be there. One of the children who was assigned to me went off with the other child and parent. I let the teacher know and she said it was fine as the two children were friends and hung out a lot after school. Until I spoke to the teacher, I was uncomfortable about that because I was supposed to be responsible for that child so I just walked around with them until I saw the teacher and spoke with her. Apparently at that school, a bunch of parents who are not selected will show up. Seems a bit odd to me that some parents feel the need to participate in every activity. This is FCPS and I've never been asked to fill out background check paper work to chaperone or volunteer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you read the post on here not too long ago where the mom showed up, kidnapped her own kid and timed the school to see how long they took to call her? She wanted to prove a point that kids were not closely supervised. There are a lot of crazy parents out there.

I found it. This is enough to ban any parents from showing up. http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/762072.page

[Anonymous]

terrible.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like Suzy's mom should never be a chaperone again...and who lets kids walk off with anyone from the group during a field trip? Did Suzy's mom get a background check?

I think the original post was that the mom wanted to temporarily join the group, not separate her child from it. Personally, I don't see the harm.

That's because you're ignorant.