To think this woman needs to stop jumping the queue every day?

[susanandlucypevensie]

My child's nursery has a queuing system and drop off can be painfully slow. You have to queue along the narrow path that runs from the car park at the back, down to the front door, with a fence the runs all along the path, then from the front door there is a gate that opens out onto the street and you can go. The manager on the door is an older lady and likes to take her time chatting to each parent, asking how the child is, getting a full handover, and if you don't get near the front nice and early you can be stood there for 20 minutes or more.
The path where we queue is wide enough for someone to stand, with or without a buggy.
There is one woman that turns up every day with one of those big, wide, side-by-side buggies for her two kids. She can't get it down the narrow path to queue, so she just goes straight to the front door to hand her kids over, where the manager will talk to her at length about each kid individually for ages. Today, she also wanted to discuss her funding so this took even longer.
AIBU to think she should bugger off with her double buggy and queue like everyone else? carry or put the one year old in a sling and get the 2 year old to walk or stand in the queue? It already takes forever and I find it really unfair she gets to queue-jump.

That sounds tough for you but won't apply to the mother with her children in a buggy, presumably she uses harnesses.

No because there are much less people at the 8 or 8:30 drop offs, so they only take maybe 10 minutes in total.
I would say there's probably 40 kids there. About 25 go in at 9am, 10 at 8:30, 5 at 8am.

Feel sorry for the poor mum with the wrong shaped buggy. She can hardly be expected to fly it over the fence. The nursery is at fault..not her.

Me too. She shouldn't have to fold it up because of a stupid nursery system either.

There's also the case of what she does with her 2 year old and 1 year old (who might not even be walking yet) whilst she folds up her giant buggy.

What a terrible system and I would mention it!

There’s probably more to this than meets the eye, if the nursery manager is allowing it to continue.
Sound like there may be reasons that cannot be shared that this needs to happen.
Possible??

Sounds like the old lady is another one with bugger all situational awareness. The last thing you want when people are queueing is

BLAH BLAH HAVE A LITTLE CHIT CHAT BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH HAVE A LITTLE CHIT CHAT BLAH BLAH
BLAH BLAH HAVE A LITTLE CHIT CHAT BLAH BLAH
EVERYONE ELSE CAN WAIT

Get a double buggy and do what she does

Omg it only took 2 mins to drop off when my dc were at nursery, OP this isn’t normal or acceptable! And is this queue under cover? Or do you get rained on when waiting, if bad weather?

I’m sure you pay a lot per day for nursery, so they are not providing you with good service for your money, are they?

I bet this system can make parents late for work when it’s an especially long queue

Just go to the front of the queue when you get there and say ‘sorry I need to drop and run today’ say bye to your child and walk away…. 5 seconds is all it takes

I feel you're pain. Luckily mine are older now. Our nursery was similar. Narrow path to building. Would also have the same exchanges staff and parent conversations. Some who would give them a complete run down of DD/DS for several minutes and a big line it takes time. So lining up early to get DS in on time for work was essential. Then bang on time for doors opening, a father would turn up, barge past all the (mainly) mums queueing and think he had priority as he worked and in work attire. So do bloody some of us too mate! Hence being prepared arriving early. Child was also walking and no buggy ever needed. Was younger then and no backbone. Wish I did at the time, or someone else and pulled him up on his entitlement.

Why can’t the 9am parents take it in turns to line up with four other kids?

I was on thread where it was considered reasonable to wait for longer periods when dropping off/picking up children. It became a competition of who was waiting for their children the longest.

I had expressed exasperation at having to wait so long - especially as the adults seemed to want to discuss the far end of a fart about their child with the key person/teacher at nursery -
even when a cloud burst is being blown sideways and your nose is funnelling rivulets of rainwater down both sides of your face.

I take my grandchildren to nursery/primary school - the door opens for F/KS1/KS2 at 8.40am and then I have to wait until 9am for the nursery doors to open. Same at home time - 3pm finish for nursery and 3.30pm for the rest of the school. When it's wet weather I get drenched no matter what combination of rainproof clothing I wear - possibly due to the menopause making me sweat buckets inside the waterproofs.

On average, I wait/hang about at least an hour a day to drop off/pick up the grandchildren.

Can't use breakfast/afterschool club as children have to be reception age/in reception class or older to use it.

God. When parents drop their kids with us, it's like a mass incursion. They all just sort of charge the front gate and disappear into various stables, not to be seen until lunchtime. The only time there's a handover is if someone is unwell or injured or something requiring special management.

That is not a ‘normal’ drop off system, I wouldn’t be happy doing this (any) every day, wasting more than an hour every week hanging about (if full time).

The path doesn’t accommodate a double buggy, she can’t be expected to hold one DC for 20 minutes in the ridiculous queue.

Nursey need to find a better system - and would be looking for another nursery if they won’t or can’t.

We could go in immediately due to a combination of efficient signs in with multiple staff receiving DC. Staggered start times also helped.

This sounds crazy, you need to speak to the nursery about changing arrangements for drop off.

When my DC were that age, they attended a nursery which opened at 7.30am. To get to the station, parked and into work for 9am, I needed to be away by 7.30 and 30 seconds am. I literally used to throw them in the door and speed off as I had an awful micromanaging boss at the time.

In my defence, pickups were different and more like the leisurely handover style you describe as there wasn’t the same big rush that there was in the mornings, as everyone arrived at different times.

I’d be walking straight to the front of the w queue too… but I’d direct my child in and say ‘sorry don’t have time to queue or to talk!
at the end of the day if someone has something to hand over they should stand and wait till all the kids are in, no one should be stood queueing after start time unless they want to hand something important over.

And with little ones! What about bad weather? I'd be shouting "oy get in the queue!"

”…especially as the adults seemed to want to discuss the far end of a fart…”

I love that phrase, @MyOtherCarIsAPorsche - I’ll be stealing that, if you don’t mind!

The woman (buggy mum) knows what she's doing, she's taking the double buggy for this very queue-jumping purpose! She probably has a right chuckle to herself as she's walking away. Bitch.

It's perfectly normal for a 2 year old and a 1 year old to be in buggies. Many people there with just 1 2 year old or 1 year old will have them in buggies too so why wouldn't she use a double one?

Assuming the 2 year old isn't disabled, then I'd be walking the 2 year old and have the 1 year old in the sling (or back carry the 2yr and front carry the 1yr old). Not faffing about with a double buggy!

Some people find slings to be more of a faff, especially having two on you at once.

Some children also dislike slings. Two of mine never settled in them but were fine in the buggy.

She's likely just doing what is easier for her, as is everyone else who has their young child of the same age in a buggy.

No one is going to do that rather than just use a buggy, especially if carrying one and having the other running loose also means waiting 20 minutes in a queue.

Fair enough. She still shouldn't be queue jumping though!