Jobsworth lollipop man

[badheadday]

Due to moving house and not wanting to change my kids school we have to drive past a couple of other schools before we get to ours.

There is one particular lollipop man that seems to make a point of stopping as many cars as possible. He's constantly on the lookout for people walking towards the crossing and will stop cars before the pedestrians have even reached him. This includes parents that have already dropped their kids at school and clearly don't need any help to cross the road as they are fully grown competent adults. He has been known to cross a group of people, let one car go through and then stop the next car. Surely he needs to let at least a couple of cars through to help keep the traffic flowing?

Would I be unreasonable to complain about him?

Yes.

Just leave it. In the grand scheme of life's most awful people, an over zealous lollipop man is pretty low down on the list.

He sounds helpful and good at his job - please don't complain about him!

No it’s bloody annoying. I would complain too.

Its really fucking annoying. We had a lollypop lady near us that created huge traffic jams. I was on the cusp on complaining

This isn’t for real, surely?!
He is doing his job. If it’s inconvenient for you then maybe find a different route to school.

YABU

I would find it annoying I won't lie, but seriously you can't complain about him doing his job! They are not just there for the children crossing.

I think YABU. Everything needs to be done to make it easiest to walk to school. I appreciate your situation is different, but most people will be walking distance from their local primary school and many of them choose not to walk.

I wish we had a lollipop (wo)man near our school because there is one really awful crossing.

I wouldn't complain. It would be waste of time for all involved.

I remember when my kids were little, the lollipop person at their school was hit by a car 3 times with the last resulting in a lengthily hospitalisation (and obviously workers claim). Using common sense this means they saved 3 kids from being run over instead, or potentially more. Given this, I tend to cut all lollipop people a bit of slack and may eye roll to myself but wouldn’t complain.

@FawnFrenchieMum

I would find it annoying I won't lie, but seriously you can't complain about him doing his job! They are not just there for the children crossing.

I remember it being a big thing when I was young that they were only supposed to help children cross. Have things changed?

You're lucky to have him. Our town has been unable to recruit lollipop people for the 3 primary schools here for over a year now, making it much less safe for the DC to travel to school independently.

It's part of the training to assist everyone across the crossing during a shift regardless of whether they have children or not.
Regarding stopping traffic before the pedestrians reach the crossing, some people will not wait and will cross as soon as they get there which confuses others waiting and they might all then decide to cross when it's not safe. Also if the patrol are on the opposite side of children running towards the crossing they are not in a position to stop them running across apart from shouting out. By being ahead of the game helps avoids this.

The school near us employs a lollipop man until 9.30, which is way past when all the school traffic has gone. It’s an incredibly quiet road (literally not a car in sight).

I walk along there with my pram (no other children) and he always looks disappointed that I’m not crossing the road so he can’t help.

He stopped the (non-existent) traffic for a dog walking lady the other day, she looked most perturbed.

It does make me feel awkward for him, he must feel like a spare part.

A friend visited Japan, and said that at going-to-school time, loads of retired people turned out to supervise!

@HoppingPavlova

I remember when my kids were little, the lollipop person at their school was hit by a car 3 times with the last resulting in a lengthily hospitalisation (and obviously workers claim). Using common sense this means they saved 3 kids from being run over instead, or potentially more. Given this, I tend to cut all lollipop people a bit of slack and may eye roll to myself but wouldn’t complain.

That's quite shocking! I fully appreciate they do a good job and I'm not in anyway suggesting he shouldn't be there at all. Just that he should let a few more cars through before stopping the traffic again. We pass another lollipop man on our journey and I don't have a problem with him at all.

As a school crossing patroller myself it is not just children we cross we are told to cross everyone so please don't report him.

I presume the lollipop person does it for adults as part of setting the example for children to only cross when told or a pedestrian light is green for example.

If you can't be patient while pedestrians, some of them vulnerable, are crossing then you probably shouldn't be driving. In the newest version of the Highway Code and the hierarchy of road users pedestrians have priority even if they haven't started to cross yet.

Perhaps you need to rephrase it... rather than complain, ask if he could let a few cars through each time he lets them pass and stop stopping cars before the people get to the crossing.

YANBU. If sounds inefficient and would waste a lot of cumulative time.

The lollipop lady round here use to do that, she would see me coming off the bus and then come out and stop the cars when I was nowhere near the crossing as the bus stop is further down so still took me time to walk down, even then it use to annoy me as I felt pressure to quickly rush which isn’t easy with small children. But no I wouldn’t complain

I suspect having a lollipop person until 9.30 was so that the role was enough hours that they would get someone. It's a horrendous role to recruit to. An hour or so a day but split up so you are limited as to what else you can do.

Of course you shouldn't report him.
You should be thanking him profusely for everything he does.