Parents who drive their kids to school\bus stops might be the worst people ever

[alkemyst]

There are too many disrepective parents, they are just teaching their kids to grow up the same way.

I have encountered cars where the driver and students have gotten out and just left them on the road or worse in a single lane school entrance. Parents going in through the exit prior to dismal to get to the front of the car pickup line. Parents pulling into other peoples driveways to wait or worse pulling into their front lawns.

Also parents seem the worst offenders to crosswalks and speed limits. In front of my son's middle school, my fiancee had to get out of her car and stop traffic because no one was yield for kids in the crosswalks while they were trying to get out of the rain even some teachers (who she reported). Here the law is you cannot cross a crosswalk with a motor vehicle if anyone is in it.

Oh and the best are the parent's booming "fuck me" music while in line for pickup / drop off.

 

[rh71]

Thankfully everyone gets bus service here (stupid high school taxes though). Due to personal scheduling conflicts, a lot of kids still get picked up/dropped off. I did it once and the line wasn't too bad (again, lots of buses), but it was still a slow-moving line. I would go nuts having to do that twice a day every day. Didn't see any a-hole behavior - it was just having a number on your window and they have those kids ready at the front.

I wonder how I ever survived, walking a half-mile to elementary school from age 5 through age 10 and having to cross 4 streets. No bus.

You were left alone to walk and cross streets at 5? I'm inclined to say your parents really just didn't (or couldn't) care about your well-being. I know it was different times, but still. Nowadays there are too many inattentive (aka distracted) drivers to let any kids even bike on the streets anymore. A neighbor kid skateboards in front of his house and I've witnessed him almost getting hit numerous times.

 

[Exterous]

Excellent article in the Oregonian from a while ago about this very issue:

http://www.oregonlive.com/commuting...eph_rose_hey_mom_and_dad_en.html#incart_river

Nationally, about three-quarters of school-aged kids now get to and from school by car, according to the Federal Highway Administration

 

[Dirigible]

Thankfully everyone gets bus service here (stupid high school taxes though). Due to personal scheduling conflicts, a lot of kids still get picked up/dropped off. I did it once and the line wasn't too bad (again, lots of buses), but it was still a slow-moving line. I would go nuts having to do that twice a day every day. Didn't see any a-hole behavior - it was just having a number on your window and they have those kids ready at the front.



You were left alone to walk and cross streets at 5? I'm inclined to say your parents really just didn't (or couldn't) care about your well-being. I know it was different times, but still. Nowadays there are too many inattentive (aka distracted) drivers to let any kids even bike on the streets anymore. A neighbor kid skateboards in front of his house and I've witnessed him almost getting hit numerous times.

In my town, 6 year olds walk to school without parents. But you're right: I haven't seen five year olds do it.

My kids walk to school.

As a bicycle commuter, I agree with the theory that parent drivers near schools are horrible people.

 

[Leros]

You could have completely stopped traffic where everyone is in line waiting to pick their kid up from school, like this:

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I walked to school when I was five. It was six blocks and crossed one major street. We lived half up on a large hill so, I walked three blocks up the hill and three blocks down the hill. It really was uphill both directions.

Most families only had one car and mom didn't know how to drive anyway. Dad worked during school hours and would have thought it a waste of gas even if he didn't. That was the normal, average situation. School buses were for rural kids. Every neighborhood had a school within walking distance. It wasn't til my senior year that cars driven by students actually outnumbered the cars driven by teachers.

 

[shortylickens]

I guess I can understand. Every day the news has stories about kids being molested or shot or bullied.

Of course, the parents dont spend all day watching their kids at school, so its really just a waste of time taking them and picking them up.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I guess I can understand. Every day the news has stories about kids being molested or shot or bullied.

Of course, the parents dont spend all day watching their kids at school, so its really just a waste of time taking them and picking them up.

The media reports bad news to good at a ratio of 99:1 I'm not suggesting people go through life with blinders on but, if you go looking for the worst, you're going to find it.

 

[alkemyst]

I was born in 1971, in a major city we had many crossing guards and later an overpass, I was not allowed to walk to school or even walk around on my own until probably 3rd or 4th grade. In 5th grade after an over pass was built across the four lane highway in front of the school, I was able to ride my bike.

At 5 or 6 a child is not coherent enough of all the dangers, esp. now when people will not stop for kids in a crosswalk and disobey school speed zones.

 

[Red Squirrel]

You could have completely stopped traffic where everyone is in line waiting to pick their kid up from school, like this:

Wow that's brutal. And I thought when the Tim Horton's line up ends up in the highway it was bad.

 

[waggy]

To be be fair to the parents when you read reports of parents who let the kids walk are getting the police and DCFS called on them it makes you think.

 

[Ns1]

To be be fair to the parents when you read reports of parents who let the kids walk are getting the police and DCFS called on them it makes you think.

for a mere MILE

Robert Demond Gets Probation For Making His Son Walk A Mile Home From School
...
LIHUE, Hawaii (AP) — A judge sentenced a Hawaii man to one year of probation and a $200 fine for making his son walk a mile home from school as a form of discipline.

Judge Kathleen Watanabe called the punishment "old-school" and no longer appropriate, the Garden Island newspaper reported Thursday
...
Watanabe said times are different today, given child predators and traffic.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/29/robert-demond-probation_n_5415095.html

 

[Adul]

I wonder how I ever survived, walking a half-mile to elementary school from age 5 through age 10 and having to cross 4 streets. No bus.

I had the same kind of walk when I was a kid. Hell I had to walk 3 miles from my middle school to get home.

 

[waggy]

for a mere MILE



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/29/robert-demond-probation_n_5415095.html

i read one where a mother had DCFS and the cops called on her letting her 10 yr old walk 3 FUCKING BLOCKS TO SCHOOL.

 

[alkemyst]

For most of you posting how you had long walks and survived, it's really worthless without more details especially the period of time it happened.

Today, drivers take potshots at bikers, pedestrians and people cutting their grass close to the road. They go speeding by and try to get close. I don't get it. I just straddle the middle lane or left/right lanes if someone is close to the road (and they finally made it a law here to yield 3' to any non-motorist despite doubled lines or not).

The fuxored thing is at least 4 times since I have lived here I have seen and heard stories of these asshats then clipping a mailbox or a parked car....and worse the person they were trying to scare.

Trucks/SUVS esp forget how far their mirrors extend.

 

[Ruptga]

My middle school was an even kilometer from home, and I walked as often as I was driven starting in 5th grade.

Drivers have always been careless and incompetent, the only difference over time is the number of cars. More importantly, people in general and children in particular will live up or down to the standards they are given.

 

[highland145]

i read one where a mother had DCFS and the cops called on her letting her 10 yr old walk 3 FUCKING BLOCKS TO SCHOOL.

To be expected in downtown Pakistan shit hole....right?

 

[Exterous]

To be expected in downtown Pakistan shit hole....right?

Not every place is as bad as SC

 

[highland145]

Not every place is as bad as SC

I do know of one in an unpronounceable city in MI.

 

[alkemyst]

My middle school was an even kilometer from home, and I walked as often as I was driven starting in 5th grade.

Drivers have always been careless and incompetent, the only difference over time is the number of cars. More importantly, people in general and children in particular will live up or down to the standards they are given.

Don't know what age group / demographic you belong too, but in the 70's and early 80's drivers were much more courteous and aware of pedestrians and would stop for a jaywalker/someone in the crosswalk.