What does this school mum actually think the rest of us are queuing for??

[aperolspritzbasicbitch]

In general I arrive at my child’s school for pick up about 5 minutes before the playground gate is opened. Not on purpose, it just happens that sometimes the walk is quicker than others. Sometimes I’m the first one there, sometimes there are a few people in front, and others join the queue behind me.

One particular mum will turn up bang on collection time (fine) and just walk past the queue of people patiently waiting and stand right in front of the gate.
As if we aren’t all there for the same reason.

It actually baffles me that she seems to think that her need to collect her child is any greater than the rest of us, but so far haven’t said anything because I can’t be arsed with any playground drama, although yesterday I was tempted to side step in front of her just as the gate was open.

is this not just straight up rude behaviour?

Is mumsnet a parallel universe all of a sudden? Of course it's a queue! Of course she's entitled and self absorbed. Of course manners dictate that you don't push alongside/ in front of people who are queueing politely.

Yes but you would then expect the person at the front of the queue to be the first to enter the shop and have first pick of their goods. Whereas in your scenario, to continue the analogy, it doesn't matter who is first through the door, the sales assistant will only sell you stuff (your kids) in the order that it is piled up behind the counter. So you could be 10th through the door but first served if your item l (child) is at the top of the pile.

Yes it's a queue but there doesn't seem to be any real need for it to be a queue. People have just decided to queue like sheep. You aren't 'queuing to proceed' because nothing happens as a result of being first/second/last. It sounds like once the gate is opened you all just go in to the playground and stand around randomly, and then your kids come out in any order, so the queue is completely pointless and unnecessary.

I don't understand why you are so worked up by it when her going to the front doesn't negatively affect you or how quickly you collect your child.

If its anything like my child's school, the queue at pick up time is very obvious. They used to open the gates around 10 mins before official finish time so people could wait in the playground, but now the gates are opened on the dot and it causes a bottleneck. The odd person will do exactly as you have described OP, I notice it but nothing worth getting annoyed over.

I don't think I would bother to queue in these circumstances to be honest. I join a queue at a bus stop or ticket office, but not to get into an open space where everyone will be wandering around for a few minutes.

I work in a school and drop off time used to be at the classroom door. Parents would form a queue and tell the teacher the child’s lunch option and in they’d go. Every morning one mum would just breeze past the whole queue and wedge her daughter in to the front. Another mum got fed up and said “you need to wait at the back, we’ve all been waiting before you came”. It turned into a bit of a dirty looks war but it quickly stopped after she stood up and said something. The other mum would join the queue from then. Maybe just say something like “I think the people behind me were before you” and leave it at that. Some people are either so oblivious or so entitled either way they don’t care!

Either say something to her it get over it. You are very argumentative on here with plenty to say … does that translate into real life??

Brilliant, I can tick faux naïveté and failure to read the OP properly off today’s MN bingo card 💪

YANBU on the basis that the school gates are a pain the backside and the amount of parents that think their personal collection takes priority are also a pain in the backside.

Agree with this. I don’t understand why it bothers the OP. Why even queue? It’s not like you’re queuing for a service. You don’t get away quicker, or get better seats or better quality food. You could be first in the queue but if your child comes out last, it makes no difference.

I can see why she does it. I wait in the car, laugh at all the Mum’s who like to be there 10 mins before gassing, wait for the queue to go, then jump out the car, collect the children and go, the Mum’s in the queue gassing are now in the playground….you guessed it…gassing.

Ordinarily queue jumpers would piss me off but not in this instance. You could be in the queue an hour or push in as soon as the gates open and neither party benefits.

Of course it's a queue! Its purpose is immaterial - if there's a queue, ie a line of people waiting for something to happen, you join the back of it.

Someone obviously forgot to explain the concept of queues to her as she was growing up. I'm so glad I'm past the school gate stage, the behaviour of some parents certainly explained the behaviour of their children.

obviously not, or I would have said something to her by now.

Should I not be responding to comments on a thread I started then?

Perfectly safe and perfectly stupid - just like your thread. 😆😂😆

Again, that’s not the set up of our school. No one is being held up if she doesn’t walk straight to the front of the queue.

Wow, that’s really hit me right where it hurts.

You sound like a total loon.

You are all waiting to go in a gate, she is not jumping anything, just sees there is no need to wait so walks through the gate now its open.

She isn't benefiting in any way the whole thing is a nonsense.

Quite. I couldn’t get worked up about this

Why do you queue though? Some parents seem to do this at my kids' nursery and I don't get it: the kids come out when they are ready as long as the teacher sees the parent is there.

The gate isn’t open. That’s why we are all queuing. She walks to the front of the queue and stands in front of the closed gate, also waiting for it to open.

Exactly

We queue because we are unable to walk through a closed gate.

It doesn’t actually make even a slight different to how fast you collect your child, because thats totally dependant on when their teacher releases them
she’s doing absolutely nothing wrong then

She is - she's walking to the top of the already formed queue to stand and wait for the gate to open.

Is it not like the queue to get on a plane? I mean everyone has a seat already and it won't leave until everyone waiting is processed. The queue is just a way of getting on without pushing and shoving.

I wouldn't mind unless she's physically pushing you.

But it doesn't follow that you need to queue?
It makes no difference who walks through the gate first, so why queue? I still don't get it.

yes but that makes sense. If you've been waiting longest, you should get seen first. The child that has been waiting outside in the cold longest goes inside first, and the parent who has been waiting longest gets to go home/to work first.

But in OP's case it doesn't matter who is first in the queue, their kids come out in a completely different order anyway. If the school operated a first in queue = first child to go home order OP would be negatively impacted by the mum pushing in. But it doesn't, so she isn't.

The mum pushing in has no impact on how quickly OP's child comes out, nor does whether the parents queue politely, barge in front of each other like rugby players, climb the fence or dance into the playground in a conga line.