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

Kendodd

if I am then I don’t know about it

its a countryside place, so a school in the countryside might be a village with a bit of community left, and obviously people that chat - I’d rather be there than stuck with glue on M25

so I start at the back and move a few cars forward each time

so if the other drivers weren’t in front of you, it’d be quicker

Yes, they can have a chat whilst she's waiting at the side of the road to get 6 people together to cross at once. As you say, if they don't like it, they can always leave earlier

yes It would be quicker now the lollipop lady has changed. It would have made no diff before

Standing in the road for a chat and blocking the road when there’s no people crossing isn’t right. Would a traffic light system be better? Perhaps ask if that could be installed instead of the road being blocked unnecessarily.

they don’t install crossings with lights out in the sticks unless it’s a place where there’s been several accidents already

I couldn't get too worked up about being held up for 30 sec, cars do it all the time

This thread is really depressing.

As a society we are more socially disconnected than ever. A LPL on minimum wage (and who it’s v difficult to recruit for) is potentially getting a telling off or will at least be made to feel a bit shit because someone complained she’s not adequately policing people making a couple of comments in passing as they go about their day.

For what? Minutes, literally a few minutes.

So complain, they leave, no crossing for the school and someone, a child, gets hurt. Feel better about those 5 minutes now? Or it is possible you are stressed and just projecting that on to someone else to blame.

YABVU

Do you mean you wouldn't mind in OP's position? Or as a non parent/not during drop off?

I agree. People are so bloody intolerant and self centred these days. It’s sad that OP wants the lollipop lady to get reprimanded for swapping pleasantries with the people she helps across the road.

I agree with you to a point... but the disconnection is here. This is OP's community, not LPL's community, and I don't get the impression that any of the 'I wouldn't minders' have considered that at all. Perhaps her extra life pressure may create extra stress? She came here to ask parents with kids, not people with LPL relatives.

Ogmios_zen on TikTok has the right karma

I ‘complained’ about a lollipop crossing person once.

They were placed on a busy inner city road with a traffic light crossing. But they would ALWAYS put their sign out and stop the traffic when the lights were on green and then wait on the side of the road when the lights were on red. Only one car ever got through every few minutes. It looked deliberate and was infuriating. What they were oblivious of was that the resultant tailback was way back into a major city roundabout with four major arterial routes - it caused chaos and delays for hundreds of drivers at peak time.

I didn’t want them to get into trouble but just to be made aware of the knock on effects of their stupid timing. If they’d just guided the kids across during the red lights and let traffic flow on the green, it would’ve been fine.

Yanbu. Kids have to cross safely but other road users have to be somewhere too!

Your best bet is to mention this to the councillor for the arra the school is in, as I am certain the council will be the lolly pop ladies' employer.

Sounds like the flow of traffic is being ground to a halt by the new lolly pop lady and the the whole situation has become like a rat up a drainpipe.

I'd be raging. Bloody beep at her next time.

Managing traffic is part of the job yes highlight it

YANBU at all Op. She's not doing her job properly and therefore needs to be told / retrained (not reprimanded in any way) so that she allows traffic to flow properly and isn't causing unnecessary hold ups.

I'm in the US and they are called crossing guards. Thought you were talking about lolly pop suckers.😂

This!

There are a lot of Rage Rover mothers on here.

@BankOfDave

I doubt she would leave over someone gently correcting her. I'm sure she wants to do a good job?

I'm in NI and recruitment in of crossing patrol staff is being frozen to save money. Don't be surprised if this happens in the rest of the country. So if you have a lollipop person at your school, don't complain unless they do something stupid or dangerous (unlikely I know, but trying to cover all bases), because they might not be replaced. And this would be much much worse than someone holding up the traffic for a minute or so.

We were told yesterday purs is retiring... and not being replaced. Last day today.

If you leave any time within an entire hour's window then the lollipop lady holding you up for a few minutes here or there really isn't the issue.

Presumably on the days you leave at 8.45 you are late for school regardless, so you really are directing your blame and anger at the wrong person here.

He's fabulous isn't he?

YANBU, stopping in the road to chat is a piss take.