Anonymous wrote:If I were the Principal at your school, there is no way I'd ever let your kid on a field trip again. You violated all sorts of school rules (and common sense and safety!) by pulling your little stunt.

I'm certain that in the hours before they called you, you had all the parents, teachers, and staff at the field trip location in all sorts of panic. You ruined their day.

You also seem like a selfish jerk for not caring about the other kids. If the chaperone for your child's group was as horrible and irresponsible as you say, why did you take your child and leave, instead of finding the teacher and letting her know? If you thought your child was in such mortal danger, why was it OK to leave the other children there in peril?

Congrats, OP. You are now "that parent" forever. All the teachers at your child's school will know about you, and they will never ever trust your judgement about anything again.

This is a really good point. OP put her little "test" ahead of the safety of other kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live in NW DC, and there have always been lots of parents on field trips. Almost all working parents, too, not SAHPs.

I've never been responsible for more than two other kids on a field trip. Where are you guys that you're responsible for up to five other kids, as OP says was the case?

Same.

OP - name which school district where this happened. It's not common in the DC area for field trips to be 5 to an adult for kids that age.

MCPS 5 kids each time.

Anne Arundel. 4 or 5 kids most times.

If I were the Principal at your school, there is no way I'd ever let your kid on a field trip again. You violated all sorts of school rules (and common sense and safety!) by pulling your little stunt.

I'm certain that in the hours before they called you, you had all the parents, teachers, and staff at the field trip location in all sorts of panic. You ruined their day.

You also seem like a selfish jerk for not caring about the other kids. If the chaperone for your child's group was as horrible and irresponsible as you say, why did you take your child and leave, instead of finding the teacher and letting her know? If you thought your child was in such mortal danger, why was it OK to leave the other children there in peril?

Congrats, OP. You are now "that parent" forever. All the teachers at your child's school will know about you, and they will never ever trust your judgement about anything again.

I get that you're still hyperventilating about one of your kids getting left behind to the point where everyone returned to the school and your kid was rounded up by the museum security people. That's horrifying. Your school sounds a little flaky if the teacher told you she would keep your kid with her group, and then you find your kid in another mom's group, and that mom was inattentive enough to miss you walking away with your kid, or at least didn't ask you what you were doing as you walked away. As a SAHM who volunteered on all the field trips, I can assure you that I took the role very seriously. I can't imagine something like that happening when my kid was in elementary school, as all the moms were hypervigilant. As far as you walking off with your kid and going out to get pizza? Not good judgment. What were you thinking? Do everyone a favor and don't let your kids go on any more field trips unless you go. Don't volunteer to be a chaperone because you have such a bad attitude about field trips that you're going to spoil the experience for everyone.

Anonymous wrote:This was a set up. Why would you have your MIL there too? If she was available—why wasn’t she signed up to chaperone. You are not well, lady

This might become a DCUM legend - The Poster Who Kidnapped Their Own Child From A Field Trip To Prove That It's Possible To Kidnap A Child From A Field Trip.

Anonymous wrote:I think OP is nuts and pulled a ridiculous stunt. That being said, I have been horrified at how poorly run field trips are in this area. I volunteered for one with second graders, got to the site (Mt. Vernon) and was given six kids at the front gate and told to meet back there in two hours. Teacher disappeared, and the groups were not expected to stay together. I had a couple of horrible kids in my group, but since they were not my children and I was not their teacher, I couldn’t really yell at them or give strict consequences for running off and not listening. Since much of MV is an unguided tour, I also found myself having to try to make up a narrative about what we were looking at.. I don’t think the teacher took a headcount on the bus at the end of the trip either.

When I had been on field trips in other places, the teacher keeps the group together and the parents are force multipliers. Now when my son has field trips, I remind himhe must stay with his teacher or chaperone at all times.

New poster. See the bolded statement. My kid is in HS now and I've chaperoned many field trips from kindergarten through middle school.

Did the teachers not ever give you their cell numbers to use in case of a kid being a serious problem? Our teachers always did, and also gave us a heads-up in advance if they knew a particular kid might be prone to acting up and especially to running off. And students knew there would be consequences back at school if they misbehaved on the trip.

As for the idea that you "couldn't really yell at them or give strict consequences for running off"? It doesn't matter that they're not your kids. You're allowed to tell ill-behaved kids that you are the boss of them, frankly, and make clear that if one of them runs off, the consequence would be for them to have to go with the teacher for the rest of the day. And though no parent wants to make that call and be "that chaperone" who had to tattle to the teacher -- parents in our schools DID use those calls if they really needed to do so. It was rare because most parents who chaperoned in our schools seemed actually to be willing to tell other people's children, "If you can't listen, you will stay glued next to me for the rest of this trip, and if you can't stay there, you will end up in the teacher's group, or done for the day." I've seen a kid sent back to wait at the departure point with a chaperone (when there were enough chaperones to do this) because the kid could not control himself.

In my own groups, I only recall one kid over the years who tried running off or messing around in the bathroom etc., and yeah, he was stressful to have in my group for that day, but it helped that the rest of the kids quickly figured out that he was going to slow them down and prevent them from getting to do things, so THEY began telling him to hurry up and to stick with us.

Before people post, but our teachers don't give us numbers, etc. -- so ASK for that next time. Say that other schools do this and you want it in case you have a child who goes missing or whatever. And don't hesitate to call the teacher(s) if a child is ruining the trip for the other children in the group. I've never actually had to do it because the kids knew I WOULD do it if they acted up.

If I were the teacher I would sue you for IIED.

Kidnapping by strangers is so rare it’s almost a myth.

I think OP is nuts and pulled a ridiculous stunt. That being said, I have been horrified at how poorly run field trips are in this area. I volunteered for one with second graders, got to the site (Mt. Vernon) and was given six kids at the front gate and told to meet back there in two hours. Teacher disappeared, and the groups were not expected to stay together. I had a couple of horrible kids in my group, but since they were not my children and I was not their teacher, I couldn’t really yell at them or give strict consequences for running off and not listening. Since much of MV is an unguided tour, I also found myself having to try to make up a narrative about what we were looking at.. I don’t think the teacher took a headcount on the bus at the end of the trip either.

When I had been on field trips in other places, the teacher keeps the group together and the parents are force multipliers. Now when my son has field trips, I remind himhe must stay with his teacher or chaperone at all times.

This was a set up. Why would you have your MIL there too? If she was available—why wasn’t she signed up to chaperone. You are not well, lady

I imagine that teacher freaked out for the 2 hours your kid was gone and she was desperately trying to find your child once she realized he was missing instead of calling you immediately. I have chaperoned many field trips over the years and never once has anyone lost a kid. I am hyper vigilant about the kids I’m in charge of because I know my kids know what to do if they get separated, but I don’t know what other kids would do.

My kid goes on all the field trips and he is special needs. He is smart enough to stay with the group.

So you showed up, picked up your kid and took him from the field trip without telling anyone just to see when someone would call you about taking your own kid, and are using that as proof your kid is in imminent danger on field trips?

You have major issues.

Sounds to me like you didn't do a very good job teaching your children how to follow directions, OP. Your child is way too old to need to hold a grown-ups hand on a field trip.

Anonymous wrote:Jeez. One of my best childhood memories is of being left at the zoo in fifth grade.

NP here. Five of us and a chaperone were left behind at the circus in fourth grade. The school was over an hour away so it took a couple hours for the bus to come back for us once they arrived at the school and realized we weren't on (pre-cell phones). It was an amazing day. The Shriners brought us onto the performance floor and we got to meet the performers, see the animals, and ride an elephant.

Anonymous wrote:OP you sound crazy and I'm skeptical you are telling the full truth.

Even if you being honest here your children were not really ever in any danger and in your latter example you caused the separation from the larger group.

+1. Anyone crazy enough to pull a stunt like this is crazy enough to lie about it too.