Anonymous wrote:I know the kid shuffling is epic in middle and high school years, but I am just losing it.
First off, our district expanded walk zones to a ridiculous amount and eliminated buses, so we (and most other parents) do car drop off and pickup. There is a huge slow carline, so dropping off/picking up each kid takes 20 mins per kid, morning and afternoon. So there’s a 7am and 8am drop off, then a 230om and 330pm pickup. We don’t live near any friends to carpool with —- I have not yet started knocking door to door to find a carpool but considering it.
That’s the baseline.
Then there’s the afternoon activities for 2 kids — Monday they both have music lessons, one @ 5, the other kid @ 7 with different locations (diff instruments and teachers). Then there is sports practice, just rec, 2x week and no luck starting a carpool there, @ 5pm. Then there is meeting with the math tutor once a week, at 6 pm.
We don’t even do much, but I feel my day is constantly interrupted by the need to drive a kid somewhere. We are not rich enough to afford a driving nanny or Au pair, and I know kids need to do these things as it’s healthy for them and helps with later college options. But I can’t wait until they drive themselves or the cars drive for me….
My work profit suffers, since I work an early shift starting at 6am so I am off for the afternoon shuffle. I would prefer to work a more normal day.
More of a vent. I know this is just a phase of life.
The bolded is your kid's problems, not yours. Set a schedule and they walk. Problem solved. Stop catering to make their lives easier and making yours miserable. The fresh air and exercise does them good
It's a terrible walking commute for most students, that's why carline is crazy -- almost everyone drives. It's a post COVID "bus savings" measure.
No the car line is so crazy because YOU have deemed it "too hard" for your kids to bike or walk to school.
This. All the helicopter parents have ruined carline and are now complaining that it sucks.
We live 5'ish (a little more) miles from school, crisscrossing highways, and in jam packed traffic the entire way. So, no, biking or walking isn't an option. I can and have dropped DC a bit from school but that doesn't always work due to location and other ES schools (2) right on the borders so there is enforcement there. Finally, Im not comfortable with my teen daughter riding a bus alone. I understand people do allow it, and that's fine. But that doesn't make it "helicoptering" that we don't. And the school bus is an almost 45 min. ride to go only those 5 miles.
So I drive (she sometimes carpools in the a.m.) and am in the drive line. If you don't like it, you can kindly piss off.
Entitled mom raising entitled kids. You have a bus and you choose not to use it and waste the carpool line. You are the problem and you don't care. Such a grand way of parenting
And yes, not allowing a TEEN to ride a bus alone is insanity.
NYC kids ride the subway to school and only have parent cards until Grade 3. They do it alone or with classmates after that. You are a helicopter. At least admit it. Raising another clueless dependent teen that will go off to college with zero common sense or street smarts. Guaranteed to be on anti-anxiety meds as well.
Ah, the memories..
I grew up in Brooklyn and starting in 4th grade we all took the train to school and thought nothing of it, as there were a million other kids with us on the train so headed to the same place.
We felt SO grown up too, like we really thought we were adults, lol.
Same! And then we eventually moved to the suburbs of NJ and took a school bus but even my youngest sister walked to the bus stop herself for half day K.
Now in my neighborhood we have moms turning on their land rovers to idle and pick their 5th graders up from the bus stop so they don't have to the walk the 7 houses home. I think that is insane, yet a mom asked me to stop letting my 2nd grader walk home alone (we live 4 houses from the bus stop) as it is unsafe.
So maybe it is the DC metro area. I don't know - but all this driving it is insane to me and so bad for the environment.
You can always move to a more urban environment. Why do you choose to live in the suburbs if it bugs you so much?
We found the mom who picks up the 5th graders from the bus stop! LOL
My kid is in HS. But why do you care what works best for other families? You getting so pissy over it is way worse than the parent picking up their kid. You're just a jerk.
Not the PP but I will forever make fun of smother mothers who pick their kids up at bus stops. They can walk the 10 houses home, even in the rain. Even in snow or cold. If you don’t that is ridiculously, fine. It’s your opinion. But my opinion is to agree that 7 cars at a little neighborhood bus stop is dumb.
DP here. I don’t mind helping my kids - if I wouldn’t want to walk somewhere in the rain, why should they? I’m not OP though and I’m not complaining about doing it. My kids do take a bus usually because the carline is really time consuming.
I would be fine with them taking the bus, that was our plan when we moved here. They expended the "walk zone" during pandemic and never rolled it back! We have no bus options, so our kids have 1+ mile in all weather, carrying overloaded backpacks and musical instruments to school
Anonymous wrote:I know the kid shuffling is epic in middle and high school years, but I am just losing it.
First off, our district expanded walk zones to a ridiculous amount and eliminated buses, so we (and most other parents) do car drop off and pickup. There is a huge slow carline, so dropping off/picking up each kid takes 20 mins per kid, morning and afternoon. So there’s a 7am and 8am drop off, then a 230om and 330pm pickup. We don’t live near any friends to carpool with —- I have not yet started knocking door to door to find a carpool but considering it.
That’s the baseline.
Then there’s the afternoon activities for 2 kids — Monday they both have music lessons, one @ 5, the other kid @ 7 with different locations (diff instruments and teachers). Then there is sports practice, just rec, 2x week and no luck starting a carpool there, @ 5pm. Then there is meeting with the math tutor once a week, at 6 pm.
We don’t even do much, but I feel my day is constantly interrupted by the need to drive a kid somewhere. We are not rich enough to afford a driving nanny or Au pair, and I know kids need to do these things as it’s healthy for them and helps with later college options. But I can’t wait until they drive themselves or the cars drive for me….
My work profit suffers, since I work an early shift starting at 6am so I am off for the afternoon shuffle. I would prefer to work a more normal day.
More of a vent. I know this is just a phase of life.
The bolded is your kid's problems, not yours. Set a schedule and they walk. Problem solved. Stop catering to make their lives easier and making yours miserable. The fresh air and exercise does them good
It's a terrible walking commute for most students, that's why carline is crazy -- almost everyone drives. It's a post COVID "bus savings" measure.
No the car line is so crazy because YOU have deemed it "too hard" for your kids to bike or walk to school.
This. All the helicopter parents have ruined carline and are now complaining that it sucks.
We live 5'ish (a little more) miles from school, crisscrossing highways, and in jam packed traffic the entire way. So, no, biking or walking isn't an option. I can and have dropped DC a bit from school but that doesn't always work due to location and other ES schools (2) right on the borders so there is enforcement there. Finally, Im not comfortable with my teen daughter riding a bus alone. I understand people do allow it, and that's fine. But that doesn't make it "helicoptering" that we don't. And the school bus is an almost 45 min. ride to go only those 5 miles.
So I drive (she sometimes carpools in the a.m.) and am in the drive line. If you don't like it, you can kindly piss off.
Entitled mom raising entitled kids. You have a bus and you choose not to use it and waste the carpool line. You are the problem and you don't care. Such a grand way of parenting
And yes, not allowing a TEEN to ride a bus alone is insanity.
NYC kids ride the subway to school and only have parent cards until Grade 3. They do it alone or with classmates after that. You are a helicopter. At least admit it. Raising another clueless dependent teen that will go off to college with zero common sense or street smarts. Guaranteed to be on anti-anxiety meds as well.
Ah, the memories..
I grew up in Brooklyn and starting in 4th grade we all took the train to school and thought nothing of it, as there were a million other kids with us on the train so headed to the same place.
We felt SO grown up too, like we really thought we were adults, lol.
Same! And then we eventually moved to the suburbs of NJ and took a school bus but even my youngest sister walked to the bus stop herself for half day K.
Now in my neighborhood we have moms turning on their land rovers to idle and pick their 5th graders up from the bus stop so they don't have to the walk the 7 houses home. I think that is insane, yet a mom asked me to stop letting my 2nd grader walk home alone (we live 4 houses from the bus stop) as it is unsafe.
So maybe it is the DC metro area. I don't know - but all this driving it is insane to me and so bad for the environment.
You can always move to a more urban environment. Why do you choose to live in the suburbs if it bugs you so much?
We found the mom who picks up the 5th graders from the bus stop! LOL
My kid is in HS. But why do you care what works best for other families? You getting so pissy over it is way worse than the parent picking up their kid. You're just a jerk.
Not the PP but I will forever make fun of smother mothers who pick their kids up at bus stops. They can walk the 10 houses home, even in the rain. Even in snow or cold. If you don’t that is ridiculously, fine. It’s your opinion. But my opinion is to agree that 7 cars at a little neighborhood bus stop is dumb.
DP here. I don’t mind helping my kids - if I wouldn’t want to walk somewhere in the rain, why should they? I’m not OP though and I’m not complaining about doing it. My kids do take a bus usually because the carline is really time consuming.
So you take your car out of your garage and drive the 200 yards to the bus stop. Idle until bus arrives and turn around drive the 200 yards back?
100% yes and without shame or regret. What’s it to you?
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Entitled mom raising entitled kids. You have a bus and you choose not to use it and waste the carpool line. You are the problem and you don't care. Such a grand way of parenting