AIBU in expecting people to WAIT for the green man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jesuswhatnext]

sorry an going to swear as i'm so bloody angry!well, i know i'm not unreasonable in thinking that teaching toddlers to cross the road is basic fucking mothering!

i cant stand seeing women put the buggy over the kerb, then cross the bloody road when it looks clear instead of waiting for the green man - i could have killed a child this morning cos the stupid bint mother couldn't wait 2 fucking seconds. (and no, i'm not a petrol head, am a 45yo mother who would never get over killing a child)

what is the point of having pelican crossings if pedestrians take no notice of the instructions.

This makes me mad too!! especially when we are all waiting for the green man so we can cross and the rest of the waiting crowd just goes when they feel like it !!! very hard to teach road safety when not everyone sticks to the rules i am trying to teach.

Yes, and No.
If I'm with just DS2 (not old enough to see the green man) and it looks like nothing is coming, and I'm in a hurry, I'll cross without.
However if there are other children waiting there, I won't, to set a good example to the children.
I get quite annoyed when I've been standing at the crossing for a while waiting for the green man who seems to be comatose and someone just frolics along into the road without looking or considering that there are children watching their actions.
I'd like to think my children understand that some people are fucking idiots though and not to copy anyone but to listen to their mother.

Whilst you are quite right, I think that a lot of pedestrian crossing need reprogramming. There is a staggered crossroads just outside our house. The lights are bloody useless - the green man is only on one of the roads and we get 2 mins tops and have to wait ages to get it. Even though there are plenty of other times in the cycle when it would be safe to cross. That isn't uncommon ime. If it takes 8/9 mins to cross a road because the lights are so badly programmed, I'm afraid that people are tempted to take risks.

And like vs I will take a chance but only when I am 100% sure it's safe. And then of course there are the 2 children in our school that were knocked over on the crossing while the green man was showing .

oh, i agree that waiting can be very frustrating but i would rather wait for how ever long it took just to set an example to the kids.

I think YABU to expect people without children to wait for the green man, even if there children at the crossing. It's their business what they do and not their job to teach other people's kids anything. YANBU that people WITH kids should though.

jesuswhatnext, what about if there were no children at the crossing?
Would you still wait then?

If I'm in a hurry and it takes 5 mins for the lights to change (which it does outside my local tube) then, much as I'm keen on setting a good example to children, I will run across the road. Only when I'm on my own - I don't do it with the buggy

You should move to Germany. Here it is considered very anti-social to cross the road on red if there are children at the crossing and I cannot imagine a parent doing it with their own dc.

vs - yes i would, i always wear high heels and cant run

I kind of disagree.
In the olden days, charlie says, you taught a child to stop at side of road, watch, listen, when safe cross. So these are good skills to have to cross any road.
Normally, with ds we wait for green man, becasue ds likes it.
But crossing when it is safe, is also a good skill.
The real problem here is that the mum doing the crossing thought it was safe, but it obviously wasn't , becasue presumably you could have hit them.

Bring back David Prowse I say!

sim, you are showing your age

Yup wrong side of 40 I'm afraid, however I think the Green cross code man had quite an impact. There was a squirrel one too wasn't there, but I think that was even before my time!

Same here mutt. When I'm with DS#2 who is 5 I'd never cross on red. My older children know when and where it's safe to cross but I know that DD at least always waits for the green man still. I think that learning basic road skills is important. My nephew and niece who like in the back of beyond, find town roads quite daunting and have no common sense at all.

I have known adults apologise to me when they cross against the lights because they are setting a bad example to my DCs. Which I think is lovely

mutt - i have no problem trying to show other peoples dcs a good example if it helps keep them safe, my d is 16 now so idon't 'have' to wait for the green man as such, i just think it is a responsible thing to do.

btw the squirrel was called tufty

x posts mutt {smile] my mum would never let me join the tufty club cos it cost money, but i soooo wanted a badge!

Yes I tell both my kids to wait for the green man even if the road is clear.

I do wish drivers would also stop when the lights are red. I often see cars already starting to pull away, with people only having just stepped back on the kerb and the lights are still red or flashing amber.

I also wish drivers would remember that if people are physically on a zebra crossing that they must slow down and stop. We have had so many near misses whilst using our very dangerous zebra, but unfortunately our only means of crossing a very busy main road, in order to get to and from school. Two people have been knocked down on this crossing but not badly injured. Unless they are killed (according to Highways) nothing will be done to improve on the crossing's safety. The lollipop lady who used to man the crossing, many years ago, was also knocked over. Madness.

I remember the Tufty Club too!! I don't expect other people to wait for the green man just because my children are waiting but if anyone does cross while the red man is there, my children will comment (loudly!) that they are naughty for doing so. I have had a couple of people turn and apologise for not thinking of the example they were setting.

oh yes i was in the tufty club (this is now my sister's name for her fanjo )

When I was small, my Mum told a Policeman off for crossing on the red man. She said he was setting a bad example to me.

I point out the man to Tink and tell her that the people crossing when he's red are naughty. We have to cross a dual carriageway and another smaller road to get to the childminders, so three in total. The third one, which is a one way road, doesn't go green when the traffic is stopped for some reason, so I've told her it's broke and we go when the cars have stopped. I always tell her to look for cars.

I know she is only 2 but I want to be installing these things right from the start so they can hopefully become second nature to her.

The dual carriageway lights don't work in conjunction with the other lights further up and down so quite often there is no traffic because it is stopped further down. If I'm on my own and there aren't any children around (most of the time as I live in the City Centre so it's mainly office people around) I will make a judgment call. I can't tell Tink they're naughty people if I cross in front of other people's kids.

Ah yes Tufty that was it! My brother nickname was tufty at school cause his hair stuck up! I do remember the green cross code man more though, he was huge! Well to a small child he seemed so, prob why I took notice of what he said, he probably scared me!