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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Already fallen out over new school run!

85 replies

Forgossake · 11/09/2014 20:32

This may be complicated so I apologise if it doesn't make sense.

So Ds 2 has just started secondary. The school is local but still a car journey away, I work 3 days a week and also have Ds 3 to get to primary school and dd to nursery. It's hectic and involves a lot of back and forth journeys, getting stuck in traffic and me nearly always arriving a few minutes late to work.

There is one other boy going to this school who lives in our area and Ds 2 is good friends with him. I approached this boys mum about a school run. I asked if she could do 3 days and I do 2. As I thought this felt slightly unfair to her I offered to also take her younger son to his school so she had no school run to do for 2 days.

Last week went fine. This week, the older boys have wanted to start after school clubs. There was football today and it was my turn to do the run so I spoke to the mum this morning and said obviously I would be picking the older boys up at 4.30 but when the timings are different it would be difficult to pick her younger son up at 3.15 from his school. This would mean 2 separate trips in the afternoon. She said she was working. She had not considered the fact that her younger Ds finished a lot earlier. So I said if it was difficult today I would help but she said no she would do it.

I can be a bit rubbish at saying no to things like this normally and was trying hard to be fair but assertive. I would not dream of asking her to go out of her way to collect my little ones so I felt quite strongly that going out of my way to collect her younger son at a much earlier time was unreasonable.

I worried all morning that I had let her down so texted her lunchtime to remind her that if she was struggling I would help out today.
Heard nothing until 4.20pm as I am loading the little ones up to go and collect the older boys. She sent me a text saying she had had to leave work early to get her younger son and ' it's great to have friends, isn't it?'.

I saw and replied to this text outside the secondary school, waiting for the older boys. I told her I thought she was being a bit unfair and she had assumed that I would always go out twice to collect all the boys when after school clubs occur. She clearly thinks I am being unfair. Pointless texting back and forth starts up. And I admit to feeling I had to fight my corner as her text messages were unbelievably patronising and passive aggressive.

After 20 mins of waiting for the boys, I went to check if they were still in school ( my Ds is known for chatting away with his mates in the changing rooms!) But they had left already. I drove around looking for another 15 mins then called this mum. She didn't answer my calls or text messages. Then I tried her home phone and her older Ds answered Shock. She had gone and picked them up herself and hadn't bothered to tell me. By this time I was on the verge of tears and furious. I drove home and only then did she text me saying she had picked them up, my Ds was now home and she would speak to me when I had calmed down. Angry

I have told her to leave the school run. It will be tricky but I will manage on my own anyway. Just seems a shame when we were both benefiting. But I don't like confrontation and it has left me feeling awful and doubting myself. Was I unreasonable? I hate to take the piss out of people and consciously tried not to do this with this mum. But apparently I can now go and 'find some other mug'

If you are still with me, you deserve a medal. And please don't flame me. It's a sign of my upset state of mind that I am even brave enough to post this - she knows I like MN and if she reads this, it will be pretty bloody obvious!

OP posts:
whatever5 · 12/09/2014 08:58

I think that it was extremely unreasonable of you to suggest this arrangement and then to back out of it at the last minute because it didn't work as well for you as you thought it would. You probably caused this woman problems at work and I don't blame her for being annoyed.
It was also very wrong of her to pick up your eldest dd without telling you unless she thought that you weren't going to do it of course.
I think that you need to sort out your own travel arrangements in future.

UsedtobeFeckless · 12/09/2014 09:21

YABU. To be honest I'd have been well pissed off if you approached me to lift share then pulled out at the last minute when it was your turn simply because it was too much trouble.

The leaving you hanging about outside school thing was probably just a text going AWOL.

I think you should apologise and stick to making your own travel arrangements in future.

I know it's hard - I live in a small village and have a whole tangle of lift sharing arrangements with other mums - but if you work you have to be able to rely on people not to ditch you at the last minute without a damn good reason - not just because they can't be arsed.

itsbetterthanabox · 12/09/2014 16:34

I think if you agree to do it on those days then unless there is unusual circumstances then you should do it. How is she meant to organise work otherwise? Football was to benefit both your kids so isn't a hassle to you. Yabu.

WookieCookiee · 26/09/2014 19:54

I thought that picking her youngest Ds up would help her out, she has 2 days without a school run.
but she doesn't - you told her, on the day, that actually it wasn't convenient to get her youngest after all as you have to wait and she'd be better to make her own arrangements. If you said this to me in the morning, I'd take time off as well, and even with your lunch time text I'd be fairly hacked off.

She should not have collected your boy without telling you and checking you knew first though.

YaBothBU

Aridane · 26/09/2014 20:06

YABU - apologise and move on. Be the bigger person.

gingee · 26/09/2014 21:05

Maybe try and say you're sorry the arrangement fell apart, then have a chat about your boys getting to school by themselves and how to implement that. Honestly it will make your life so much easier and they need to at secondary be able to get about alone - the various practices for teams, groups, clubs, plays, extra lessons etc only increase in number and they even have to be in early sometimes for various random reasons! It's just easier if they know routes/buses and the like.

Maybe do a run with them?

I do think she behaved badly in picking them up herself though without letting you know - very silly and I'd be pissed off too.

Have a nice Wine and try not to worry about her though!

treadheavily · 26/09/2014 21:34

I think you were very unreasonable to want yo change the plan at such short notice. You really let her down. And, as has become very clear, a series of texts will not soothe ruffled feathers. Pick up the phone. And apologise for letting her down.

redskybynight · 26/09/2014 21:59

I've done a similarly complicated school run share for the last 3 years. With 2 other parents and multiple children. The reasons it has kept working for us:

  • arrangement is equally beneficial to all of us. I don't see that the other parent is getting any benefit out of yours - it sounds like she was perfectly happy to get her ownchildren with no help, and in the case of her youngest might actually prefer to pick him up herself (depending on his age).
  • you need to communicate, communicate communicate. You've failed miserably
  • Any changes to arrangements need agreeing clearly. Ideally work out contingency plans in advance.
  • you actually need to be in a position that you can cover the other person if something goes wrong. What happens if one DC is ill? what happens when one does a club and the other doesn't? When a younger DC does a club, or goes on a school trip and finishes at a different time. When there is parents' evening straight after school so you don't want to come straight home? Those are all things that are going to happen. Your current arrangement is ill thought out and has no contingency.
YonicScrewdriver · 26/09/2014 22:05

This thread is two weeks old - they've either made up or not by now!

cindydog · 26/09/2014 23:06

YABU , cant believe that you cant see that.

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