School pick up line,rant

Cabin, you may *not* share this with my math-geek (I say that about him with all love and respect) son! Just - no! L!

Don't really know what to say about the pick up line having never experienced one, but I'd probably park around back of the school or something or at a grocery store down the block, and walk with my kid there. It'd probably cut the whole thing in half time wise. Seems like even if you win you are losing. That is a lot of time to have to spend picking somebody up.

Oh- and the only time I ever became aware that somebody in my community committed a murder (killed somebody I knew) it was on a school bus. Bragging bunch of wanna be gang members. Even if we ever put our kids in school, they will *never* ride a bus! (Yea, the got caught, went to jail, all that.) People did all sorts of things on that bus - don't get me started on the band/cheerleader bus, which of course always came back from games in the middle of the night in the dark. People came dang near getting pregnant on that one. I will think it one of the greatest gifts I ever give my children if they never - ever have to ride one!

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When I was a bus driver, I was stuck in the middle between the school, who didn't want the bus to have less than full capacity, and parents, who didn't want Little Johnny to have an hour long bus ride. My route was handed to me and I wasn't allowed to change it in any way, even when I passed kids on a side street and had to pick them up 10 minutes later on my way back out of the subdivision. The saddest case was a little mentally handicapped girl who rode my bus. I picked her up in one place every morning, but the school insisted I drop her off at a different spot in the afternoon. It upset her every day, and I worried about her having to walk 5 minutes alone to get home. So I secretly kept her with me (the mother was in on my underhandedness) until I dropped everyone off and was on my way back to the bus yard. I'd stop by her *morning* stop and let her off.

I think the routes should be planned by the drivers, who know every shortcut, every long stop light and every place where it's dangerous for kids to be waiting near the road.

I get mine to class everyday, usually with, "Everybody upstairs! Now!" We homeschool.

Having said that, I feel for ya'. I talked to a neighbor a few months ago about her child's ride to kindergarten. It was something outrageous, like 2 hours, for a half day of school. I don't blame people for wanting to spare their children that much time on a bus.




MomofFour, that sounds like a brilliant solution. Have driver's submit their "best route", maybe a few weeks after school starts so they can be aware of the potential problems of the new year.

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Spinner's Lap Cloths (and more) at Bede Sisters

I had never heard of a pick-up line from school until my mother called me a couple months ago. She's been calling me at the same time most weekdays for, oh, a year now, while she waits for the kids she babysits to get out of school. She mentioned that she was waiting to pick up one of the boys. Each individual child is walked to the door of the vehicle and buckled into the car by a teacher. Only one teacher for all of the children.

I'm pretty sure it's a small elementary school, but to me that's crazy. At the very least they could have a couple people walking children out so that the line would move twice as fast.

I'd never heard of it before, so I just assumed it was something crazy they did where she lives in Georgia. I'm sure no one would ever dare to cut her off though. I remember asking about certain new words I had heard after trips where someone had cut her off or pulled out in front of her.

Kayleigh

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No bus service here for those living within 2 miles of the school, so I had to drive my kids and neighbor's kids as well to school and pick them up. Most of us would follow the rules and line up single file in the designated pick-up area. But others would drive up and double park beside us, making it virtually impossible to pull out until they all left. No matter how many times we complained, all that was done was to send letters home reminding parents of the rules. But nobody bothered to enforce them, so the problem continued. I thought my worries had ended when the new schools were built on one campus far enough away for my three grandkids to take a bus. But, turns out they each have to take a different bus to their respective schools (kindergarten in one building, second grade in another, and the middle schooler to yet another). And they don't even have the same bustop! Try being in 3 places at the same time. Not possible.