Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to really dislike the bloody schoolrun

82 replies

schoolrunfun · 28/11/2008 19:34

I go through phases of actually hating the schoolrun and it makes me a really down in the dumps. I think it is all the politcs, having to talk to other parents even when you can't be arsed and the my child is better than your child etc etc.

AIBU to sometimes want to get a job just to avoid the schoolrun?

OP posts:
MaryMotherOfCheeses · 28/11/2008 20:03

If so many of them are delightful, why are they so bloody difficult to strike up conversation with. I'm so sick of people looking straight through me when I smile that I'm starting to think OP has a point.

psychomum5 · 28/11/2008 20:03

I like the mums (and dads) of my childrens friends.

I just do not have time to chat as I am always running off for another child.

and this is the biggest reason to stick to two children isn;t it......

Original poster
schoolrunfun · 28/11/2008 20:04

Yes, maybe it is an end of term thing. I am counting down the days until school closes.

OP posts:
motherinferior · 28/11/2008 20:06

Well, frankly it sounds to me as if loads of people have self-calcified into not talking to anyone else.

I got this very slightly when DD2 started, I suppose, but bulldozed my way through. And then I realised that perhaps they were rather shy and/or had other things on their minds.

I send PE kits in every half term, for the whole term, do school dinners and don't do uniform (and if I did, I wouldn't iron it). Punctuality's non-negotiable, obviously, but I don't have a problem with that.

cat64 · 28/11/2008 20:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster
schoolrunfun · 28/11/2008 20:08

Prehaps when you don't do it every day, 3 times a day you enjoy it more?

OP posts:
Original poster
schoolrunfun · 28/11/2008 20:10

I do talk to lots of people and have a few friends/loads af aquaintances at school. I think that is part of the problem, if I did'nt talk then they would think there was something up and sometimes I just don't want to, in fact I dread it.

OP posts:
MaryMotherOfCheeses · 28/11/2008 20:11

But unless you're good at being a bulldozer, and I'm not, those people are going to stay calcified. I really don't get how to change it unless I have a personality transplant.

mysterymoniker · 28/11/2008 20:11

anyway no, don't think it's unreasonable but do hope you feel better about in new year

how long do you have lunch-time pickups for?

motherinferior · 28/11/2008 20:12

Gawd yes, agree with Cat64 about 'levels'. Why would you want to know?

Today at the school gate I chatted to another journalist who was extremely sweet about the way my new job's going (stressful) and a job she might go for; to the fabulous woman who's agreed to have both Inferiorettes to play on our forthcoming Inse(c)t Day about what sort of cake her DDs like (I must send one along); a (non-ogle-worthy) dad about the parent council; and a lovely woman (wife of Ogleworthy Bloke) about her pregnancy and the jewellery she makes, and about how she's setting up a website.

All very pleasant. And then the Inferiorettes and a friend all trundled home, and when the friend's mum came to get her we discussed where Edam and I should go for a drunken lunch tomorrow.

Original poster
schoolrunfun · 28/11/2008 20:13

mystery

Thank you. I will doing lunch pick ups until end of school year until DD3 starts!

OP posts:
motherinferior · 28/11/2008 20:16

I'm not a bulldozer but am quite psychotically chatty

Minniethemoocher · 28/11/2008 20:16

I loath the school run, all those cliquey Mums, looking you up and down and then looking down their noses if you are not dressed in the latest fashions.

And the competitive parents, bragging about their children, goes down very well with me, as DD is on the SEN register at school, so I just smile sweetly and tell them how proud I am of her, without mentioning her achievements, which are different from mainstream.

I am very shy and have made no friends from the school run. I have just had a baby and only a couple of the Mums have even bothered to send me a card....

southeastastra · 28/11/2008 20:16

sometimes you're really in the mood for a chat so it's nice to get there early to mingle

most of the time though i time it so i just rush in, grab son and rush out again. it's more relaxing that way

jicky · 28/11/2008 20:29

But why would you expect a card for a new baby from someone just because they have children in the same class as your older ones ?

KatieDD · 28/11/2008 20:34

Does nobody elses school gates have loads of gossips ?
My electrician today told me (he has a child in a class with mine) that apprently I'd had an affair this summer and been kicked out of home There's always some who's shagging who rumor going around our C of E school, very Christian !

RetiredGoth2 · 28/11/2008 20:36

To quote minniethemoocher..'all those cliquey Mums, looking you up and down and then looking down their noses if you are not dressed in the latest fashions.'

Do they? Do they really?

This will have to go down as another social nuance that wholly escapes my notice...

(Thinks: I wonder where Urchin1's Aspergers came from. Mmmm)

noonar · 28/11/2008 20:42

i like am finding it v tiresome having to pick up dd2 at 12- she's in reception- then having to go back at 3 to get dd1. i am only a 5-10 minute walk away but i still feel like my day is timetabled as much as the children's! i do quite like the chat, though. unless i'm feeling low, then its a pressure.

happywomble · 28/11/2008 20:42

Gosh Katie DD we never have any exciting gossip like that at our C of E school.

Notalone · 28/11/2008 20:43

Well I never used to mind it until I started getting sexually harassed by one of the dads on the school run who follows me in his car so now I hate it as I always end up trying to avoid said man by finding new and inventive ways to get to the school gates and don't have the relaxed chats with Ds I used to because I am so bloody wound up

deanychip · 28/11/2008 21:01

i dislike it intensly.
Im either stood there on my own, while the other mums gather in groups with each other, or because we are always early, if one of the other mums group of friends are not there yet..they speak to me for a while.

they are nice enough, but i just dont feel like i am part of them iyswim.

hifi · 28/11/2008 21:19

i agree its groundhog day, all the mums are lovely, except one. dont mind as can speak to different ones each day. when dd started i arrived 10 mins early now im on the dot so not too much chat.

blueshoes · 28/11/2008 21:20

I find the schoolrun pick up exceedingly tedious - getting myself there, hanging around, chit-chat blah blah, getting myself and dd home. I can't think of a more perfect thing to outsource.

But my dd likes to me to pick her up, so I try to do it at least once a week.

TheCrackFox · 28/11/2008 21:29

I quite like chatting to the mums, it is all fairly harmless and I have made some good friends. What I can't stand is the 3 times a day, it is like Groundhog day, aaaarrrgghh.

onthepier · 28/11/2008 22:09

I do agree with the "3 times a day issue". If I didn't work at the school I would only have to do one drop-off and one pick-up, but as I work there as a lunchtime supervisor I'm also there from 11.30 - 1. Then there are two days where my youngest finishes at normal time, (3.15) and my oldest stays for an after school club, (pick-up at 4.15).

As I'm a 15 minute walk away there's not much point in going home + coming straight back, so we kill time in the park, (cold at the moment!), or I let my ds buy sweets and string it out!

I have to be disciplined with the pockets of time I do have in the day as I'd never get anything done, I must say I look forward to school holidays!!