Mother with earplugs in on school run....

[MissEPankhurst]

I've got to ask as I can't get it out of my mind - am I being unreasonable to be having less than positive glowing thoughts about a mother I saw walking her children to school this morning as I was driving home from work: she was pushing a buggy with a toddler in, and had two school age children with her, aged about 4 and 5. She wasn't talking to any of them, and had ear plugs in from her pocket, suggesting to me she was listening to music. And to make it worse (in my opinion) they were about to cross a busy road where it would surely have been necessary to be able to hear the traffic???
There, it's off my mind, out there in the open and I hope I can stop worrying / wondering about them now...

I don't do this very often, but I do declare this is a situation for a

Whatever she was listening to probably wasn't so loud it was drowning everything else out.

Blimey she had 3 very young children with her up, dressed and out first thing. Imagine what her day had been like so far on the old stressometer. Walk a mile in her shoes and all that.

'less than positive glowing thoughts' Purlease

Excepting stickyj and pigeonpie, thanks all of you - how could I have been so naive and not realised so much about myself without your help??? Please note the intentional sarcasm

Thanks for this - another thing I should be judgemental about but it hadn't even remotely occurred to me. I'll add it to the list. By the time I reach the school gates with ds next year I'm sure I'll be accepted as an alpha mum as you'll be able to see my enormous judgey pants from space.

Noveggies and others
The reason I noticed so much about her is two fold - she was about to push her buggy into the busy road right in front of me so I did an emergency stop to avoid hitting her, and I'm sure there was something somewhere in the highway code about being aware of pedestrians and other road users . . .

When my three were those ages I'd have been carted off in a white van long ago if it hadn't been for R4.

LEAVE THE BASTARD!!

It's not something I would do to be honest as it kind of sends the message that there is not much point talking to the mum as she'd rather listen to something else. It would also make me less likely to talk to the children myself. On the school run you are about to not see the children for 6 hours, or else you haven't seen them for 6 hours, so surely the headphones can wait a bit. No one is saying that people who do this are shit parents. People are just saying they wouldn't do this. It's a parenting forum , so people do talk about what they do and don't do with their kids and why.

This thread has reminded me, I need new binoculars.

It is perfectly possible to have music on and still hear your brats whinging the little darlings speaking to you.

Personally, when my toddler gets forced put into his pushchair I often turn on my iPod so I don't have to hear the screaming crying.

mother not engaging with children shocker

The solution is....one headphone in, one out! Therefore you can hear the little dears inane chatter about how jimbob picked his nose and stuck his finger in little dears ear and so on, whilst listening to music at the same time!

I used to use the time on the way to school to talk to my children. So yes it is a bit sad if a mother has ear phones in. But OP she may have been still able to hear her children and she may have been talking to them before you saw her. Also she would have still been able to hear the traffic. I know as I sometimes listen to my iPod on the way to work ( no children with me) and I can still hear traffic.

Maybe she works for MI5?
Maybe she's an undercover agent in plain clothes, masquerading as a school mum when really she is receiving messages through a special ear piece in order to trap a felon.

the other day I was helping with my DS's Beaver group teaching them about road safety. Obviously one of the important lessons I was teaching them was to "listen" when crossing the road.

Whenever I cross the road with DS we go through the rules of crossing the road and lead by example. I think I would struggle with that if I was wearing headphones.

I assume the lady mentioned above who has hearing problems would still teach a child the importance of listening when crossing the road

oh right so all of a sudden now she was walking out in front of cars causing them to do emergency stops? riiiiiigght

Aaaah, so you had to do an emergency stop. Thats a good one to pull out the bag to save yourself ..cant imagine why you left that out your original thread - quite an important detail I would have thought!

So you were driving around a school at a speed high enough that you had to do an emergency stop to avoid a pedestrian, YABVU.

Slow down in future.

I have to admit I have very occasionally plugged in and turned my iPod up LOUD when I have had enough of listening to DS, if he's in one of his moods. Never thought to do it on the school run though.

My mum comments on this often, as she's noticing it more and more often - either earphones or talking on the phone. She finds it very sad, and so do I. I have on occasion watched a mother cross a road while on the phone, then turn round to shout at toddler to hurry up who is lagging behind and still in the road. On those occasions I have wanted to tell her to get off the phone and actually supervise her child.

Maybe she was brushing up on her mandarin to teach them all later.

oh dear, i already recommended that idea to my friend who's about to give birth & worried about baby's crying driving her crazy... disclaimer i did only recommend an ipod when the baby's in the room & being fed / cuddled / watched NOT when the baby's out of sight or in the pram crossing roads!
I think a chilled out music-listening Mum = more chilled out baby / toddler. Hopefully.

I used to wear a hearing aid and was accused sometimes of listening to music when I should have been looking after the kids.

If only...

Is every OP pissed today?

hopefully not as she was driving