At Least They Aren’t Being Driven to School
Mar 20th, 2008 by Alex
There are a lot of kids in my community that are spoiled rotten these days by their parents.
As I was running out to do some errands the other day I saw no less than nine cars parked on the side of the road, whose occupants were all waiting for their kids to be dropped off by the school bus.
It made me mad on several levels.
I don’t live in a bad neighborhood. Has our culture changed so much in the past few decades that we’re considered bad parents if we make our kids walk home by themselves or with the neighbors’ kids, rather than being escorted by us? Logic aside, I can understand that no one wants their kid to be snatched up by some panel van driving pervert. If you want to pick your kid up at the bus stop, that’s great, but why not walk the three blocks to do so? That’s right, none of these families lives more than three blocks from the corner where the bus actually stops. Driving seems like a large waste.
If it were cold outside or raining I might understand (although with rain I’d still be out there in galoshes and a golf umbrella), but it was in the mid-50’s. Furthermore it was 35° that morning and so all of those kids should have had their winter jackets with them already, which would be more than sufficient to keep them warm on the walk home. From what I could tell most of them were wearing jackets, so I’m at a loss.
Then there’s the environmental impact, both of driving three blocks to the bus stop and leaving the engine running before driving three blocks home and — and this is even more important — sending the message to our kids that it’s okay to do so.
This isn’t one of those uphill in the snow stories, but I walked to the bus stop every day. Walked home too. Most of the time without parental supervision if I remember correctly. Rarely (if ever) was I allowed to wait in the car for the bus to arrive, unless there was some torrential downpour or lightning storm so fierce that it’d be a small miracle that the bus even arrived. If I feel the need to accompany my kids to the bus stop for safety, I will. But you can bet your ass that my kids are walking to and from the bus stop, no matter the weather.
I doubt that this is an isolated occurrence. And we wonder why our kids are out of shape, wasteful, and lazy.
This was a very good post for any number of reasons. When I was in grade school, I had to walk about 1/4 mile to the bus stop in all sorts of weather, and I don’t remember my parents ever driving us to the stop…if anything, Mom would walk up to the stop to meet us. Likewise when I went to high school…about the same length of walk to the school as to the bus stop. Even now, I laugh at people who will sit in their cars, idling for five minutes while they wait for a parking place that will minimize their need to walk.
Why do you have such a problem with what other people do, they aren’t meddling in your shit, so why are you meddling in theirs? If they get fat and have a heart attack, so what?
oh, and yes, i’m aware of the irony/hypocrisy in writing this comment
PoisonedV: I’m not meddling, I’m ranting. There is a subtle difference. I have a problem because it affects me. Now, in the form of the streets being blocked by the parents in their idling cars (as opposed to the parents that do walk and wait on the sidewalk, not blocking traffic). Later, in that unless these kids have a drastic metamorphosis will end up just as lazy and unable to deal on their own once they grow up and enter the market. It’s a bad trend.