I am entering my 7th year as a Mommy at my
children’s school and one concern has existed for all my years. What’s that you
ask? Selfish parents who put their own and other people’s children at risk
everyday just by being selfish. It’s pathetic. And I’m tired of it, and so are
many other parents. I’m going to cut through the niceties and excuses here. I’m
taking off my politically correct hat and cutting loose. You may recognize
yourself in some of these. Good. I hope you feel ashamed. Today, I don’t have a
problem with that. Today, I’m giving myself permission to tell it like it is.
You being perpetually late isn’t my problem, nor is it the
kids. Drive the limit anyways; and slower once you are near the school. If you
hit someone the police aren’t going to accept “but I’m 15 minutes late for
work” as a valid excuse for injuring a child. The child’s parents will hate you
FOREVER. The same goes for whatever jackass-maneuver you feel entitled to
because you feel your time is more valuable than someone else’s. It isn’t ever
ok to double park to dump your kids in the middle of the road, or pretend you
don’t see the pedestrians or crossing guards. It’s selfish, and makes you look
like a terrible parent. Also, we talk about you, A LOT.
It is never ok to use the crosswalk zone, fire hydrant zone,
bus zone, or handicapped zone as your own personal parking spot. These things
are there for the safety of other’s. Acting as if fate favours you and there’s
magically a free spot available every morning for you and only you is beyond
obtuse. Those areas have no cars in them because it is illegal for cars to park
there and because the parents who DO park there look like assholes, most people
know that. When people do it, we talk about them, A LOT.
Showing up at a school where there are well over 500 kids
and expecting the right to dump your kids in the half block in front of the school
is insane. Unless you or your child has a physical reason why they cannot walk
a little ways to school then you should be expecting a bit of leg work. I grow
so weary of Moms who spend hundreds of dollars on gym memberships, personal
trainers, and diets yet won’t walk 2 blocks back to school from their safely
and legally parked car. Now I’m not sure if they’re as dumb as they are playing
at being, but telling Parent Parking Patrol volunteers that the drop off zone
is too small and needs to be enforced is not helpful. Even if they could
legally enforce it, it still only has 7 spaces and 200 cars worth of parents
all expect to get them. Now I was never great at Math but I’m pretty sure that
it won’t add up. How about ditching the ridiculous 4 inch stilettos and Italian
greased-sole designer footwear for something sensible and parking a block away,
then taking a nice stroll back with your kids? You will all benefit from the
fresh air, exercise, family conversation, and you will start to realize all the
great people and happenings at your kid’s school. You seem to be putting
Fashion over Family and Friendship. And seriously, you
too-well-dressed-to-get-out-of-my-car-or-engage-with-the-unwashed-masses-at-my-kid’s-school
parents, we all talk about you, A LOT.
Your kids are great! Awesome in fact. And they know the
rules. They can, and will, walk to school from a safe drop off point a block or
two away responsibly if you let them. So let them. They can do it. I know they know
how because they look helplessly at the parking patrol parents when you berate
them for trying to get you to cross at the crosswalk when you’re too busy to
walk the 14 metres and want to jaywalk instead. They know what to do and when
you don’t support them in making the right and safe choice you look
unbelievably insensitive. It’s shocking that a parent could take a child by the
hand and jaywalk them across a dangerously congested road 14 metres from a
marked crosswalk. Lazy is too kind of a word for that. Arriving on the other
side and telling the volunteer parent that the ‘whole crosswalk should be moved
for their convenience’ is the crème-de-la-facepalm and I would honestly smack
you if it weren’t for the already apologetic and devastated look on your
child’s face. It’s especially wonderful when you are reminded to use the
crosswalk and you berate the volunteer (or even the police) because we’re
‘wasting their time’ and we’re ‘stupid’, all in front of their child. They see
the helpers at their school as kind and the Police as good and don’t understand
why you don’t. They KNOW you’re doing the wrong thing and you’re bullying them
into doing it too. But don’t worry, with your excellent modelling of boneheaded
and thoughtless behaviour, they’ll be just like you soon enough. We talk about
YOU, A LOT.
I could go on and on about the stuff you do because you feel
entitled. Perhaps the Porsche/Beamer/Mercedes/Lexus/Cadillac/Fill-in-the-blank-Luxury-Label
salesmen convinced you that the lower castes would tremble before you as you
drove through in this status statement, but we’re not afraid of you. And it
really ticks us off when you appear to feel your wealth entitles you to special
treatment. Study after study shows people in the highest income levels are more
likely to engage in anti-social acts which break rules to improve their own
position. Here’s just one http://www.pnas.org/content/109/11/4086.short
And a LOT of the data came from looking at how they drive. Hmmmmm. Apparently
failure to yield to pedestrians, speeding, cutting off other drivers, dangerous
swerving, and parking infractions were all documented at significantly higher
rates in drivers of Luxury vehicles. Good to know we’re not just making it up.
Now, I am aware that some of you see your wealth as luck and live gratefully,
and you know the fact that you worked very hard to achieve it doesn’t mean you
worked any harder than the vast majority of lower income, hardworking people around you.
But a bunch of you, like a huge bunch, think you deserve more than your fair
share, and I gotta say it stinks. It makes us feel you achieved your wealth,
not through hard work at all, but through a willingness to do immoral and
opportunistic things we simply wouldn’t. So if you wonder why we have an extra
load of stink eye as you aggressively accelerate through the cross walk as kids
are trying to cross, maybe it’s because you’re making that study true. You seem
to know a lot about how to be financially successful but not much about
becoming a successful human being. We talk about you, a LOT.
So let’s recap. When you place convenience over courtesy,
and self-entitlement over safety it is really dangerous for others. You can
brush it off as much as you want but that truth still sticks. You don’t get to
think of yourself as a good person when you consistently play Russian roulette
with other people’s safety. Especially when some of those other people are your
own kids and I don’t know how you look at yourself in the mirror. The kids know
how to be safe and good to each other. YOUR kids know. Turns out, we can learn
A LOT from the kids.
Get over yourself, drive like a good person, and we’ll stop
talking.