Wednesday, May 20, 2009

rules...

are made to be broken. Right? NO.

I'm tired of people breaking the rules...not following directions.

This is a rant, as the school year draws to a close, about the people at my son's preschool. You see, he attends a very big preschool at a local Baptist church. And because it is BIG, they have a lot of cars "carpooling" kids in and out of the school. Since it's a big church, there's an equally big parking lot that is used for a good majority of the people dropping off and picking up. Because quite frankly, it's sometimes just EASIER to park and walk.

So...because of the location of said church (on a busy street), the school came up with an elaborate plan for carpool drivers. There are certain streets from which you can enter the carpool line. You must follow the line, and not drive up the main street and "cut in"...because the line starts WAAAAY back, two blocks over, and parents who follow the rules are generally already in line, patiently waiting. You're not supposed to enter the carpool line from the back streets either. And you're not supposed park on the street where the carpool line is...because if you do, you'll block the flow of traffic from the other direction. People DO live on these streets, too, so we have to be courteous of them. Also, there are several "reserved" parking spots right near the carpool line...those are reserved for the parents of carpoolers to stop and buckle the little ones in that weren't able to do it themselves.

So, why, pray tell, did one woman break ALL the rules and mess up everything that works well? Because she was lazy.

I don't use the carpool lane to pick up...I will occasionally drop Scotty off, IF it's raining, or if I need to be somewhere. And from time to time, he actually requests that I drop him off (he likes to feel like a big boy and walk in by himself). So today, I'm waiting patiently to drop him off (at his request), when this woman signals to turn left onto the street...I think she was actually hoping there wouldn't be a line so she could pull into the circular drive and drop her kids, but alas, there was a line back to the parking lot!

So...ignoring all the carefully set rules (which are set a: for safety reasons, and b: for courtesy reasons), she turn onto the street. Okay....fine...she COULD have driven the 50 yards down to the parking lot and walked her kids out. But she chose, instead to pull off to the right, thereby effectively blocking the road for any cars to go up or down past the carpool line. She proceeds to get out of her car, and unload her two children, one of whom is having a tantrum. She then walks them across the carpool circular driveway (impeding the traffic flow HERE as well)...and of course, the temper-tantrum throwing child is having none of this...so she plants herself in the road. Now...cars can't move in any direction, in or out of the carpool line, the street, or the circular drive. All because one selfish woman decided to break the rules. While I sat, fuming, several parents took the reins and opened their windows to holler at her to move her van. The teacher who were unloading the kids berated her gently for not following the rules.

If it had been me, I'd have said to her, "you know, when your kids don't follow the rules, we pull their color cards and they don't get treasures...maybe we need to pull YOUR color cards".

All right...done ranting about THIS one...will have more to follow, I'm sure.

4 comments:

Neysa said...

I TOTALLY agree about following rules and lazy parents. I see my share of the latter. Case in point: we had our first ever drama production this past Monday night. A parent was sitting in the back with her toddler and preschooler. The toddler started babbling and cooing and singing, and the mother....sheesh. Any of us would have taken the child out immediately, but she thought IT WAS FUNNY! She was laughing at him, and then trying to PLEAD with him to stop. No woman! YOU are the adult. You don't BEG your child. Your child is distracting not only the people around you, who are there to see THEIR children, but the performers on stage as well. IT'S NOT CUTE AND IT'S NOT FUNNY. Have some consideration for the others around you. Thank you for allowing me to share the soap box! :)

The Mrs. said...

I'm so tired of people not following the rules (also going hand in hand with allowing their children to run wild). If I have to follow them so do you. simple as that. dont like it. then stay home.

Anonymous said...

Preach it, sister. I'm with you!

Marine Wife said...

amen. sounds like she was setting a "great" example to her kids in rule-following. wonder if she has problems with them following her rules?