head teacher asks parents not to use phones at school pick up - what a great idea

[Crumpetdisappointment]

East Sussex: Head teacher urges parents to put their phones away - BBC News

i couldnt find a thread on this, but good for him

i remember years ago walking home behind a man with two children permanently talking on his mobile, while his kids were ignored

Absolutely.

Oh... And mums with pushchairs, scrolling on their phones on one hand, pushing the pram / stroller / pushchair woth the other and ignoring their kids repeatedly saying,
"Mum, mum, mum, mum, mum"
Only to finally snap...
"What?"
Put your phone away, answer your kid FFS.

Please. Mothers have been doing this forever. I grew up before smart phones and my mum reacted exactly like this when I pestered her with "mum mum mum". She'd be talking to a friend, reading a book, literally anything.

I'm sure mums reacted like that in cave man days. Kids do not need 24-7 helicopter attention!

Well this is not something than happens every day, for starters - and, secondly, my child can tell me about their day after my call is over.

no think about it, you are picking your children up and walking the 20 minute walk home, however you are on the phone, and therefore it if is to work, your work is more important than listening to your children tell you about their day

Is there only one specific time a day when kids can talk about their day? What happens after that? Do the kids become mute? The parent turns deaf? Does the world end?

Yes. Sometimes my work is more important at that moment. Not everyday but some days.

That’s life.

Not if you are hedging on the LME

I agree with other posters here - if parents want to ignore their children, they will with or without their phones.

Ours has always been no phones. For adults and children. For adults not only to set a good example, but also for safeguarding.

In my experience most primary schools don't allow mobile opines to be used in premises, or at least discourage it.
Schools cannot, however, dictate what parents do once they leave the school grounds.

Sometimes phone calls are necessary, even when parenting.

That's sad to hear and not my experience.

It's hardly helicopter parenting to pay attention to your kid as you're out and walking with them..
And a
"Hang on a second, I'm talking / reading" is not impossible and much better than ignoring them until annoyed enough to yell.

I'm of the school of thought that kids don't need to be the centre of attention every single minute of everyday.

Sometimes I'm on a work call. Sometimes I'm reading an email. Hey, sometimes I'm playing a quick game on my phone as that's how I decompress.

My kids still get a lot of attention. I read to them, play with them, sing songs and dance and do kids' yoga. I listen to a lot of my dc's chatter about her day at nursery and who her best friends are and so on.

But sometimes I have a break. And that's fine.

If I happen to be on a work call or checking an email while walking dd home from nursery, she just picks dandelions or sings a song to herself or does any number of other self-entertaining things. It's a good skill to learn

@Mumoftwo1316 if you read the report is more to do with on pick up from school

All this wfh which includes working while you pick the kids up?

It's helicopter parenting to expect mums to give their kids attention 24-7.

You don't know if that's the only break the mum got that day. You saw one snapshot of her day.

Also, it makes way way more sense to give your kid slightly less attention when they're in a pushchair (safe, secure, entertained by seeing interesting things) than at home together, where you'd be doing an activity together

@Crumpetdisappointment back in the day....once upon a time...
Parents were at work during work hours.
Children walked themselves to and from school and let themselves in at home.
Now....well children aren't allowed to walk themselves (even if they live literally across the road)and be home alone so many parents work from home.
You can't always take a random "lunch break" between 3 and 3.30.
And yes I expect some people seen driving and being on their phone at the same time are still "at work".....but why are they driving? Because the school "choice" system doesn't have children going to their local walking distance school.
Is any of this a "good thing" - no probably not. But that's the society we have at the moment.

I am so tired of being told what to do by schools. I might listen a bit more if schools made more effort to consider us parents.

Example.at our school - very limited extra curricular and when asked , head teacher tends to lexture parents about how wxtra curricular is not there for additional childcare (apparently that's the only reason any of us would want it). When they do offer extra curricular, they will only confirm a place for your child a day or two in advance. Again, when questioned, their response is "you should be assuming you are picking up your child at 3 so making plans so you can pick up at 4 is your problem, not ours". Me, and many other parents, have explained that actually, it's more often about being MORE difficult to pick up at 4. We all have arrangements in place for a 3pm pick up. Changing to 4 means changing a meeting or figuring out a solution for a sibling who now has time to kill or rearranging other things.

I thought things had improved but dd just got offered a place in something - forst session was Friday and I received an email telling me to pay on Tuesday.

So they can go get stuffed. As a pp said, the bad parents who are always on their phone and never engage are not going to change and the rest of us are doing our best.

Sure, what's the difference? My dd will be starting school in 3 months. I'm not going to change my pickup routine overnight.

If she's not in a chatty mood (which she often isn't after a long day) then yeah I'll be getting mumsnet or the Times up on my phone while I walk her home.

Sometimes. Sometimes not. Best to answer in case me not answering then impacts their work or causes an issue with something

Wow yet another example of schools over stepping.

I hope all the parents remember he is not the boss of them,

I wouldn't dream of being on my phone when my child was coming out of school but the amount of stents who are and totally ignore their child is awful daily.
But in the school my child attends the parents would ignore the headteacher's request!
Some can't even follow the no vaping policy and there's clouds of sweet smelling smoke bellowing from the parents!

there is also this
Mr Best said the standard of children's vocabulary when they start school had diminished in recent years.

If you meant the pushchair thing, that wasn't about your op. It was in response to a judgy mcjudgerson earlier in the thread

There will be parents who are just having a chat to people on the phone where it probably isn't important. Some calls are though and I think some posters live in a lovely world where their life isn't interrupted. We've all waited for that call all day and it comes at the wrong time or you are unable to make calls at work and this is your only slot to book that appointment. Of course the. The school calls you they expect you to drop everything and answer.

My job for example means I am on emergency call out with no breaks and I can assure those of you who need my services that if you called me and I told you I couldn't talk because I was on the school run and to call back later you would not think it acceptable. In fact you'd probably be in here bitching about lacking service.

It's not about giving 24/7 though is it?

It's about responding to their request for attention.

If you teach your kid that their requests for attention can be easily ignored, they'll learn your requests can also be ignored and teachers requests can be ignored...

No thank you.

Good luck with that.

Have a great day.

@GerbilsForever24

Your school sounds especially ignorant. That's bad.