to really dislike the bloody schoolrun

[schoolrunfun]

I go through phases of actually hating the schoolrun and it makes me a really down in the dumps. I think it is all the politcs, having to talk to other parents even when you can't be arsed and the my child is better than your child etc etc.

AIBU to sometimes want to get a job just to avoid the schoolrun?

[mysterymoniker]

it's a drag isn't it - are there any nice normalish people there you can strike up a conversation with?

[schoolrunfun]

Yes, there are but even they are grating on me at the moment. prehaps I am just a miserable cow?

[scifinerd]

So agree but for me it is the logistics of doing it three times a day with a young baby that really gets me down. There is no time to do anything properly, the baby never gets a proper nap and I hate hate hate it. But I also loathe the politics although sometimes I do enjoy the adult company if I have been stuck on my own.

[mysterymoniker]

it's a miserable time of year, but not long til the holidays now!

[lalaa]

i don't like it much either. i really don't like making small talk (and am rubbish at it) and most people don't do the 'my child is at stage 23, what's yours?', so it's all small talk. pointless.

i have a job and use it to run away early.

[moodlumthehoodlum]

YANBU. I hate it. Its so stressful. Especially three times a day.

[schoolrunfun]

Its like groundhog day over and over again. I just feel like screaming - 'GO AWAY' to any other parent.

[psychomum5]

I hate it too......all the stress and hunting the children down, and then you get some smart parent gunning for you cos your DC have made some comment on her Dc's lunchbox or some such other crap.

and then invariably in pisses it down on the one day you have walked without a decent coat, and you get splashed on the way home by the ubermum in her 4x4 with her perfectly coiffed hair

But, tis that or HE, which for me and my children would result in the apocolypse!

School runs are fabulous...

[mysterymoniker]

is everything else ok at the moment?

[schoolrunfun]

mystery

Yes, think so. I just seem to swing through this 'hate' of the schoolrun and actually finding it ok - even enjoying the company.

[KatieDD]

The best bit about DH being redundant is that I'm making him do the school run lol

[motherinferior]

I bloody love the school run. I organise working hours especially so I can do it - well, not the run per se, but the drop-off, and when I've not done it I miss it.

I like the contact with other parents, the touching base with what is, after all, the bulk of my daughters' lives - their friends - and the absolutely essential support from other women that I get from it. We talk about work blokes kids work relationships childcare work school...it's fab.

And I get to ogle the occasional fit bloke too.

[Quattrocento]

I hate talking to other parents at the school gates as well. Fprtunately time is too precious to waste like that.

You can avoid hanging around the school gates you know. There is no need at all to do it. It's unnecessary and slightly sad IMO. Also as it gets you personally down, my suggestion is that you don't do it.

[mersmam]

I usually quite enjoy the school run - does that mean Im a psycho??
It's often the only chance I get for any adult conversation during the day! I feel really proud of my dd1 when I see her lining up... mind you, she's only in reception so I have many years (and three more children) to go through it with!

[motherinferior]

I don't find it sad. And I don't hang around. But I do like the other people I meet there, on the whole. I like meeting new people. They're nice. And sometimes there is a cake sale.

[psychomum5]

you know, I used to love the school run when I had less of them at school, and in a smaller school (so less crowd to fight thro).

tis only now that I have to walk half a mile around the school to each classroom hunting down the children, and therefore no time to stand and natter to MY friends.

[LIZS]

I get to this point in both winter and summer terms, silly things really irritate me . I think it is a kind of burn out.

[RetiredGoth2]

...school run angst seems to be a recurrent theme in MN threads.

Plainly the social stresses at the school gates grate on a large and diverse group of people.

....but I simply can't understand it. I know it is real, and worries reasonable normal people, but I really cannot get why anyone would give a flying Jonathan Ross about other parents at the school gate, for good or for ill.

Hardly anyone ever speaks to me, nor do I speak to anyone, unless there is a specific cause to do so (urchins going to friends houses for tea, for example). It means nothing, there is simply a mutual lack of interest!

....I don't belittle the feelings of the OP or others. I simply don't GET it....

[atowncalledalice]

YANBU. It's such a hassle, even though I'm often going in that direction for work anyway. DS1 sometimes walks in with DS2 now - the junior school is attached to the senior school - but his day finishes later so DS2 always needs picking up (he's only 8 and the walk home is along a very dodgy road, at least when it's dark). SUCH a drag.

[schoolrunfun]

I think another part of it - you HAVE to see people - even friends I have made there - I would'nt choose to see 3 times a day!

[Clary]

MI I so agree with you!

I don't drop off most mornings (DH does it)but I love it when I do. I do the pick up most days and it's one of my fave things.

Nice chance to catch people I need to talk to, say hello to all the little kids, chat to some of my pals who also happen to be mums...

LOL at "And sometimes there is a cake sale". We never have cake sales. Just the occasional clear out of lost property

[psychomum5]

tis cos we are still those girls in the playground watching the 'mean girls' getting all the hot boys.......we still carry those feelings of inadequacy!!!

[motherinferior]

But lots of them are delightful people. I mean, do your kids have the same attitude of frosty silence? I like my daughters' friends, and in the main I like those friends' parents. We go to the pub (admittedly not usually straight from school). We hang out. Why on earth not?

[mysterymoniker]

well I had phases of absolutely dreading it too

but then at other times there'd be someone nice to talk to, it got better when I met some horsey mums. I can pretty much talk to anyone about anything but there were times when I just felt a bit excluded from certain cliques and other times when I quite happily gatecrashed them. maybe it is a nearing-the-end-of-term thing? I'm not keen on school generally, I don't know how other people remember to keep packed lunch stuff in the cupboards, when it's PE or swimming day, ironing schooliforms, being on time, the whole thing gets me down sometimes

[Clary]

Why are some of you going to school 3x a day?

Are those of you who hate it walking?

I only ask because the walk back from school (or cubs, or ballet) is alwyas one of my fave things - chat to the kids, race with a friend (them not me) and generally chill.