To complain about the lolly pop lady

[Morph22010]

I have to drive ds to school about 10 miles away as he’s austistic and at specialist. No other viable way to get him there, we get a transport budget paid from council. I drive through a large village on way, not an alternative route. There is a school with a zebra crossing and lolly pop lady, have never really noticed much before just stopped when needed to then on my car. There’s been a new one there about 3 months and she crosses people across then if anyone is walking down road she’ll wait in road until thry get there then they cross as well. This is meaning the traffic can start to back up so there’s more of a wait in a queue than there used to be. There was a queue this morning, was in it maybe 7 mins then stopped again at crossing. Now the bit that’s annoyed me is that the parents were crossing back across the road and one had stopped and they’ve had a conversation in middle of the road, only about an extra 30 seconds but there were huge queues both ways. She seems a great lolly pop lady for getting people across the road but Aibu in thinking they should have some regard at least to the flow of traffic? My mornings are quite stressful anyway due to ds so I’m probably letting this stress me out more unduly

@Morph22010

Same way as you do now- only with less traffic on the roads so you won't be delayed as often.

@mumoffourminimes exactly. So maybe if both parties understood the rules clearly and the purpose of each of their roles, it would go smoothly. People that walk are not less intelligent than drivers. But sometimes they act so dense you can't help but think they are from behind the wheel. If the woman is bad at her job, replace her. If it stings, she will hopefully come back stronger for knowing that her job is important both ways. She does not exist to serve pedestrians.

LPL is reminded what her job actually is, which is not having chats in the middle of the crossing or keeping traffic waiting when there is no-one actually need to cross. If that really upsets her, then maybe it's best if she does leave.

A practical solution!!!!!! 😍 thank fuck for that, the light is coming through! 😂 thanks for finding this thread. And yes, I have the school streets scheme at my kids' school and it works a treat. Hence the breakfast club!

In actual fact, I'm pretty sure the concept of a LPL was only introduced because parents of school children that walked started to believe that they could just cross the road at a whim. LPLs remind you to wait.

Explained up thread about the taxi, he is entitled to taxi but I get transport budget for taking him. He’s very difficult to get out in the mornings and the taxis only have To wait 5 mins so I’d prob end up having to take him a lot of the time anyway but getting nothing towards it

@Morph22010 I'm sorry I missed the part about the taxi. I think the rational explanations you provided were lost a long way up thread. It seems until there is a practical solution to getting a LPL to do her job properly without hurting her feelings, I think you may just need to tell your son to hold on a bit longer...

There would be a lot of complaints around here. The tailback would be ridiculous after 7 minutes delay with school buses, disabled transport minibuses and disabled transport taxis all getting stuck in it. Our school crossing patrols are fantastic with managing the flow of traffic while keeping children safe.

@cathcath2 yes exactly, I'm assuming you mean the ones that restrict traffic flow as well? It really does have to go both ways for everything to go smoothly with no emergencies created along the way. I do totally accept that in this climate people feel like their humanity isn't being considered while they work, but it really does have to be 'while they work', right?

On a side note, I'm currently trying to train a cat that refuses to come out until everyone is asleep and then expects to scavenge through the bins at night. The owner didn't see what the problem was if the cat was happy, to which I replied well if I wanted an animal to do that I would just open my door at night and let the foxes in. This is a very true story and the cat still won't come out, so he's going home soon to carry on his life 😂

Moral of the thread: if you want people to stop for chats in the middle of the road, tell her to take off her high vis, because at that point she stopped being a LPL and started being the nuisance she was there to prevent.

It's worth challenging the 5 minute thing, as that's just local policy, not the law. They have a duty to provide transport which is suitable for the child in question, and to make reasonable adjustments. If that means the taxi has to wait a bit longer, so be it. If the problem is other children in the taxi, then they should arrange a separate taxi for your child

Our local primary school is on a pretty busy through road, and it couldn't possibly be a school street because closing that street would mean closing off access to an awful lot of side streets plus local businesses. There is a crossing outside the school with a LPL, and it would be pretty disastrous to local traffic if she kept holding it up for children who aren't near the crossing or for chats in the middle of the road.

Why are you so angry?

OP has since said this happened ONCE. How do you know it’s not the parent of an autistic child who didn’t get into a special school having a real shit day and saying a pleasant hello to the LPL? You don’t is the answer, neither does the OP. None of us have any idea what’s going on in someone’s else’ life and perhaps we should all remember that before projecting our stress and anger in to someone else for ONE minor misdemeanour.

Some employed by the school, some by the council, some by MAT's, some by agencies that provide the service...
But as we agree, this wouldn't be a sacking offence. :-)