Secret Society

I'm talking about the secret society of the Parent Pick-Up Line at Buddy's school.  Crazy.  It's like the Lord of the Flies.  There is this unwritten hierarchy, unspoken rules and expectations.  I was a teacher for ten years, and honestly, I didn't know this even existed until this week.  Buddy started first grade in public school.  It is a medium sized school of about 500 kids.  No joke, parents start lining up in their cars one hour before school lets out.  One Hour.  That's five hours a week of just sitting in their cars waiting for their precious to walk out the door.  I have some opinions about this.

To adequately describe this phenomenon, I would need a diagram.  There is this labyrinth of parking lots, one way streets, circular drives, and drop off curbs.  Some are designated for teachers, visitors, buses, some for daycare vans, and others for parents picking up or dropping off (Curb A, Curb B).  None of which are labeled with any sort of signage.  And despite my best efforts, I could not get a reasonable explanation from any of the five teachers or administrators that I asked on how the system worked prior to the first day.  I am now intent on drafting up a pamphlet on the workings of the drop off/pick up for future first timers.  It was that complicated... and I do consider myself educated and with slightly more smarts than my first grader.

What's more embarrassing:  my diagram, or the fact that I actually made a diagram?  The answer is a little fuzzy.  It's okay if you still don't understand how the whole system works, I'll be offering a one hour seminar to explain the whole process.

After being yelled at by the Childtime Daycare Van Driver (I'm exaggerating, he was fairly nice), for waiting at the wrong end of the curb in pickup area "B", I figured out the system by following another car, hoping she knew what she was doing, and she did.