Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Parking lot woes

When we drop off The Talker at school I try to avoid the hassles of the school parking lot and we park at the church next door. It's not like the church has a secret parking spot or anything. Heck, they have a gate leading right to the school grounds.

This church parking lot holds about 30 cars. But the families have to walk right behind two rows of cars to get to the school. I have been paranoid of kids around parking lots since my days at the recreation center, where our front door exited right into our driveway. Plus, in the eternal battle of kids vs cars, the cars ALWAYS win... So I try to be extra cautious when walking The Talker into the school.

This morning we were walking through the danger zone when cars on both sides of us started backing out. If we had not been right in the middle I would have stood and watched them crash into each other. And we would have gotten a good laugh on the way into school...

But we were about to be the point of contact. So I let out an amazingly loud "HEY, STOP!" And I brought the entire parking area to a stand still. Which is fine. After glaring at both knuckleheads who don't seem to know how to use rear view mirrors, we went inside, unscathed. But as a bonus, The Princess and I did witness someone backing a Camry into a basketball pole. We were across the parking lot and there were no kids in the area, so I did not yell. No sense in wasting a good holler, right? Did I laugh at them? You betcha...

At this rate some of these people are bound to start using rear view mirrors. Else they will all be walking their kids to school and keeping the local auto body repair shop REAL busy. I just hope they don't cause any kiddie shaped collateral damage in the process.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember the days when I was trying to go to school and it was like being in a game of Frogger. For us, that was middle school. Total and complete nightmare to get dropped off in the morning. I'm sure it's still that way. I wish people would be more careful when they're in an area where they know 3 foot high kids are walking around.

Anonymous said...

I totally park far when I have to pick up the Princess at school at the regular "end of day" time. It's a MADHOUSE! Thankfully, she stays for the afterschool clubs 4 out of the 5 days so I don't have to deal with the knucklehead parents.

But this morning? I did confront a Mom who irritated me. She just stopped her big truck in front of 4 parking spaces and blocked the right side of the parking lot. And all the 4 kids jumped out of the truck and ran around it. While they were doing that? I had enough time to park my car, get out, and walk the Princess across the lot to the gate.

I can see that the ONLY way this kind of behavior will end is when one of these kids gets HIT by a vehicle. And that is exactly what happened at my son's daycare last year. Broke a little 3-year-old's leg. Yup....

Unknown said...

A kid got hit by a car in front of my parent's house when I was in elementary school. She lucked out with a broken leg, too.

I did not know her, she was a neighbor's friend, but I do remember the chaos and seeing her in a cast up to her hip.