Author Topic: Enforcing car clown lifestyle -- parents banned from walking kids to school  (Read 35252 times)

BTDretire

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I'm probably showing my non-American upbringing here, but I've got to ask: if the school is within walking distance, why are the parents involved at all? Shouldn't the children be walking themselves to school and back, starting at about age 5? If there's an actual issue with some of them dawdling or getting distracted, they can travel in packs and make better time.

Are you kidding me?

I live in a VERY safe suburb in the U.S. state of Missouri, and these days, kids don't even wait at the bus stop 20 meters from their front door without a parent present. It's quite odd.

Okay.  This blows my mind.  My parents had me walk to school at 5. 

That said, I wait with my kids at the bus stop because it is a busy street and my youngest is 4... I was thinking I could just start watching from the porch, then window, then just send them out the door next year.  I must be insane or an awful parent or something...

Yes.  You likely hate your children.  You monster.
  LOL,
I have a business on a dock over water. Way to often the parents are yelling at their kids, get away from the water, get back here, do you want to go sit in the car, and other things I get tired of hearing. One day I had a young mother as a customer, her 5 or 6 year old boy went down the  dock looking over the edge into the water, mom watched him but made no comment. I said I'm impressed that you let your kid explore without yelling at him about the water. She said ya, I'm from Colorado, we're a bit more laid back about the kids.
  I related to her how often parents act crazy when there kidsget near the dock edge. We both had a laugh. I've never lost one yet.

Christof

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Bus pulls up, snowflake gets on, mommy reverses back towards the house. The longest driveway is maybe 50 yards. It's sickening.

Haha, you almost got me! Of course, you are joking. Which person would drive 50 yards?

Cassie

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Bad things have always occasionally happened. I am 61 and my friend and I had a 6 block walk to school everyday including going home for lunch. Every family had 1 car that we knew. We had a few times men following us in a car and once a man got out and tried to grab us.  My Dad called the police because we had been repeatedly followed but said they could do nothing since he didn't touch us. The next day my Dad tells us to walk home from school normal but he will be waiting in his car and lying down so the guy can't see him.  We went home and my Dad has a meeting with him and we never saw him again. The bad thing is that he probably just went to a different school. When my oldest was 6 he had a 2 block walk to school alone.  One day a couple calls him by name and tries to get in him the car. He memorizes their license plate and runs home.  I call the cops who can't do anything about it.  Since he had to walk alone I walked him for the rest of the year.  The next year he has 3 kids to walk with so no big deal. When his younger brother turns 5 and goes to Kindergarten I let him walk with the others.  I think what the Walsh's did is actually more dangerous then walking to school which is they left him in a big store in the toy department when he was 6. Much easier to drive away with the kid. I never let my kids before the age of 10 be in a different part of the store then me.  I think people have gotten way more paranoid.

gaja

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It looks like it is a US thing, and I hope you keep it on your side of the Atlantic for a long time. I'm very happy that my kids walk to and from school alone. The statistics show that crime rates are the almost the lowest they have been in historical times. It might not feel that way, when we look at the news, but we have never been so safe. Another part of the issue, is that the more pedestrians and cyclists you have in an area, the more carefully people will drive. In the street where we used to live, we had some neighbors who drove a bit fast and careless past our driveway. They stopped doing that when they had to break and take the other way around, because we were using the road for skiing practice.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/07/31/whats-behind-the-arrests-of-mothers-for-leaving-their-children-unattended

SisterX

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Bus pulls up, snowflake gets on, mommy reverses back towards the house. The longest driveway is maybe 50 yards. It's sickening.

Haha, you almost got me! Of course, you are joking. Which person would drive 50 yards?

I used to have a roommate who would drive down to the corner...just to get cigarettes. Nice guy, but god he was dumb with his money. He also refused to wash socks. He'd wear them once and then just go buy a new pack. We found out because he had an epic mound of socks in the corner of his room eventually.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Bus pulls up, snowflake gets on, mommy reverses back towards the house. The longest driveway is maybe 50 yards. It's sickening.

Haha, you almost got me! Of course, you are joking. Which person would drive 50 yards?

I used to have a roommate who would drive down to the corner...just to get cigarettes. Nice guy, but god he was dumb with his money. He also refused to wash socks. He'd wear them once and then just go buy a new pack. We found out because he had an epic mound of socks in the corner of his room eventually.

Tube socks are sometimes used for different purposes. Just saying.

SisterX

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Bus pulls up, snowflake gets on, mommy reverses back towards the house. The longest driveway is maybe 50 yards. It's sickening.

Haha, you almost got me! Of course, you are joking. Which person would drive 50 yards?

I used to have a roommate who would drive down to the corner...just to get cigarettes. Nice guy, but god he was dumb with his money. He also refused to wash socks. He'd wear them once and then just go buy a new pack. We found out because he had an epic mound of socks in the corner of his room eventually.

Tube socks are sometimes used for different purposes. Just saying.

I would be slightly more understanding if that were the case, but it clearly wasn't. I believe he had a towel for that purpose. (Don't ask me how I know that. You learn weird things about people when you live in a small space.)

hdatontodo

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My kid is 8 and the bus stop is in front of the house. I work from home and play ball with him in the driveway until his bus comes, then I start work. If no bus by 9:05, I have to drive him to school.

The bus driver said a kid waiting in the house is not allowed (e.g. in bad weather), so when the wind chill is around 15, I will let him sit in my car -- for my benefit. Y B Cold. I'm old.  I only buy gas once a month anyway for my 2005 Corolla with 55K miles.

I do go outside before 4pm to wait for his bus. I like the break from work. I could just leave the inside door open. He'll need to let himself in if my potential job change happens and I can't work from home. He already practiced using his key.

Papa Mustache

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I'm probably showing my non-American upbringing here, but I've got to ask: if the school is within walking distance, why are the parents involved at all? Shouldn't the children be walking themselves to school and back, starting at about age 5? If there's an actual issue with some of them dawdling or getting distracted, they can travel in packs and make better time.

Are you kidding me?

I live in a VERY safe suburb in the U.S. state of Missouri, and these days, kids don't even wait at the bus stop 20 meters from their front door without a parent present. It's quite odd.

Okay.  This blows my mind.  My parents had me walk to school at 5. 

That said, I wait with my kids at the bus stop because it is a busy street and my youngest is 4... I was thinking I could just start watching from the porch, then window, then just send them out the door next year.  I must be insane or an awful parent or something...

Yes.  You likely hate your children.  You monster.
  LOL,
I have a business on a dock over water. Way to often the parents are yelling at their kids, get away from the water, get back here, do you want to go sit in the car, and other things I get tired of hearing. One day I had a young mother as a customer, her 5 or 6 year old boy went down the  dock looking over the edge into the water, mom watched him but made no comment. I said I'm impressed that you let your kid explore without yelling at him about the water. She said ya, I'm from Colorado, we're a bit more laid back about the kids.
  I related to her how often parents act crazy when there kidsget near the dock edge. We both had a laugh. I've never lost one yet.

https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/1r6u9a/man_gets_arrested_for_trying_to_pick_up_his_own/

That's a story I know about. Arrested? Really?

At my son's school some parents line up an HOUR before school let's out. If it's cold or hot outside the engines idle-idle-idle. If I have to pick my son up after school for some reason (very rare for us) Either I can come very early and idle-idle-idle (nope not doing that) or wait until the end of the pickup-time window otherwise traffic is a mess.

Our whole town operates a bit like this. Set off for work at 7:30 and you can be at work in no time. Wait ten minutes more and traffic is miserable.

Parents can be such a mess. Such odd relationships with self-responsibility in some cases. That snowflake effect often discussed here.

I rode my daily driver motorcycle (cheapo transport, long gone now) to an event. A parent came over to me and gave me a tongue lashing for riding it there b/c he couldn't keep his son from wanting to climb all over the motorcycle. "

I said: "hey, I'll hold the motorcycle so it doesn't fall over and he can sit on it if you want."

The father's reply was "are you crazy??? You shouldn't have brought that thing here in the first place."

I told him it was time to work on his son's discipline. He didn't like that. ;)

The older I get, the more picky I get about people. ;)
« Last Edit: April 18, 2016, 01:33:46 PM by Jethrosnose »

fattest_foot

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I believe you can trace this back to the kidnapping and murder of Adam Walsh in the early 1980s:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Adam_Walsh

After the Walsh case became a national sensation, there was a cultural shift where parents grew hyper-sensitive to  "stranger danger" and hesitated to let children wander off unsupervised. Of course, statistics show that "stranger danger" is rare -- much rarer than the threat from people they actually know.

I don't know, I'm also 32 and went to school in the late 80's and 90's. My wife and I actually got caught in traffic at the local elementary school the other day and didn't realize how ridiculous it is.

It wasn't until reading the responses here that it clicked with me why that seems so insane, though. When I was in elementary school, I don't remember anyone being picked up by their parents. You either hopped on the bus or walked home. I remember being jealous of the walkers because they could just head home, while I had to wait for everyone to get on the bus.

I remember being in maybe 3rd grade and decided to just skip the bus and walk myself home. I had to cross a 6 lane road, but it had a crosswalk and I don't think anyone batted an eye about it.

TheGrimSqueaker

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I believe you can trace this back to the kidnapping and murder of Adam Walsh in the early 1980s:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Adam_Walsh

After the Walsh case became a national sensation, there was a cultural shift where parents grew hyper-sensitive to  "stranger danger" and hesitated to let children wander off unsupervised. Of course, statistics show that "stranger danger" is rare -- much rarer than the threat from people they actually know.

I don't know, I'm also 32 and went to school in the late 80's and 90's. My wife and I actually got caught in traffic at the local elementary school the other day and didn't realize how ridiculous it is.

It wasn't until reading the responses here that it clicked with me why that seems so insane, though. When I was in elementary school, I don't remember anyone being picked up by their parents. You either hopped on the bus or walked home. I remember being jealous of the walkers because they could just head home, while I had to wait for everyone to get on the bus.

I remember being in maybe 3rd grade and decided to just skip the bus and walk myself home. I had to cross a 6 lane road, but it had a crosswalk and I don't think anyone batted an eye about it.

Being dropped off or picked up by a parent was considered shameful. It generally meant the kid screwed up somehow and missed the bus, got kicked off the bus for being a discipline case, was too immature to be trusted to walk, or just didn't have his or her act together. A kid could get mocked for that, unless there was a reasonable and obvious excuse like having to bring a science fair project or if the parent was doing volunteer work at the school.

Edited to add: the major push for this mentality came from the kids, not the parents.

Johnez

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I'd love to see what the pollution levels are around these schools with half hour waiting lines. I can't think of anything more idiotic than dozens of idling cars spewing pollutants at kids....

partgypsy

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I believe you can trace this back to the kidnapping and murder of Adam Walsh in the early 1980s:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Adam_Walsh

After the Walsh case became a national sensation, there was a cultural shift where parents grew hyper-sensitive to  "stranger danger" and hesitated to let children wander off unsupervised. Of course, statistics show that "stranger danger" is rare -- much rarer than the threat from people they actually know.

I don't know, I'm also 32 and went to school in the late 80's and 90's. My wife and I actually got caught in traffic at the local elementary school the other day and didn't realize how ridiculous it is.

It wasn't until reading the responses here that it clicked with me why that seems so insane, though. When I was in elementary school, I don't remember anyone being picked up by their parents. You either hopped on the bus or walked home. I remember being jealous of the walkers because they could just head home, while I had to wait for everyone to get on the bus.

I remember being in maybe 3rd grade and decided to just skip the bus and walk myself home. I had to cross a 6 lane road, but it had a crosswalk and I don't think anyone batted an eye about it.

Being dropped off or picked up by a parent was considered shameful. It generally meant the kid screwed up somehow and missed the bus, got kicked off the bus for being a discipline case, was too immature to be trusted to walk, or just didn't have his or her act together. A kid could get mocked for that, unless there was a reasonable and obvious excuse like having to bring a science fair project or if the parent was doing volunteer work at the school.

Edited to add: the major push for this mentality came from the kids, not the parents.
going to school in the 70's and 80's I also remember this being true, you either took the bus or walked. If parent drove you in was because you messed up and missed the bus, which most parents gave enough hell that didn't happen too often. I find it mind boggling the idea of building a school that is non-walkable.

Jack

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going to school in the 70's and 80's I also remember this being true, you either took the bus or walked. If parent drove you in was because you messed up and missed the bus, which most parents gave enough hell that didn't happen too often. I find it mind boggling the idea of building a school that is non-walkable.

One thing that's changed since then is that all the newer suburbs build a few larger schools instead of a bunch of little ones (allegedly it saves on administrative costs and makes it easier to offer a variety of elective classes). Similarly, older areas have been shutting down and consolidating neighborhood schools.

For example, my neighborhood in Atlanta is littered with old school buildings that aren't used anymore, and a few years ago we had a hard political fight to keep our one remaining school open.