Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Original poster

row in parking lot with head teacher! (longish)

467 replies

sansouci · 01/10/2005 18:33

There is next to no parking by dd's school. Everyone complains but for the moment, nothing has actually been done about it, except for the police coming round & taking photos of pick-up & drop-off times. The yummy-mummies make it even worse with SUVs but anyway.

Yesterday when I went to pick up dd from school, I had to double park. I left my warning lights flashing to show that I was coming back soon. Unfortunately, dd didn't come to the car easily & then I got chatting with another mummy, as you do, forgetting completely about my precarious parking place.

On returning to the car, a group of angry women were clustered in front of the school & of course I apologised profusely to the one or two I had blocked.

One woman made a rather bitchy comment as I was charging by & when I saw her heading for her car a few minutes later, I asked her what she felt could be done about the parking. It's not my problem, she replied shortly. We got into an argument, which escalated, as things do on a Friday afternoon. She said, I'm a teacher at this school! to which I retorted, My daughter is a student at this school & if you're part of the staff, you should care about the parking problem! I wasn't rude, but I was very angry with her & she was angry with me.

I eventually roared off, furious and shaking, cursing the woman aloud. Do you know that silly woman? I asked DD. Yes, she said, she's the head teacher. Oh SH*T, I thought, Now I've done it.

How can I face her again? She'll be dd's teacher one day. I think I was right to be cross but I was at fault & certainly on the defensive. What do you think I can do?

OP posts:
moondog · 01/10/2005 22:56

Very good!
All every day occurences in Van Eastern Turkey!

I'm sending my guest (young Kurdish girl) back tomorrow after a month with me (bloody hell,I'll miss the extra pair of hands..)
It's taken me ages to train her to 'clunk click' both herself and the kids.
They'll think she's barking at home when she starts to fasten her seatbelt lol!

SueW · 02/10/2005 08:39

Have you ever been on the expatinswitzerland yahoogroup? If the teacher concerned is Swiss then that group would prob not be at all surprised. The last time I was on that group, there seemed to be constant battles between the expats (mainly North Americans) and the Swiss teachers they had to deal with. I was quite pleasantly surprised when I actually spent half a day with DD at a Swiss-German school and we were welcomed with open arms.

goldenoldie · 02/10/2005 11:31

Apologise sharpish and hope she has not already labeled you and your as dd ferral oiks.

ggglimpopo · 02/10/2005 12:28

Message withdrawn

Caligula · 02/10/2005 13:06

She's either incredibly stupid and benightedly lazy, or she has a disability which isn't obvious.

happymerryberries · 02/10/2005 13:11

I'm a bit lost as to why you should think that a member of staff should care about the parking outside a school. Now granted, you eventually realised that she was the head, so possibly she should be a litle more interested in the parking, but what do you expect her to do? She can't magic more parking for you all.

Double parking is a daft thing to do and you made it worse by chatting. If I'd been waiting for you to move I'd me rather miffed.

I teach in a school. I frequently have to park in the overspill car park, but there you go. I don't feel that I should have to spend my time 'caring' about the parking situation outside my place of work. I'm a teacher, not an NCP manager. Or is that an aspect of my job that O forgot to brush up on?

Nightynight · 02/10/2005 13:16

surely someone from the school management should care about it though? Like McDonalds putting out litter bins so that the locals dont get too mad.

happymerryberries · 02/10/2005 13:20

But what could they do?

Schools tend to be limited by their geography. If there is no-where to park then that is 'it' until they move location. TBH if the school I work at could get more land I would rather they used to to develop the schools facilities, rather than set it aside for parking.

If you have a school on a road, what could they do?

happymerryberries · 02/10/2005 13:21

Puting in little bins is simple. Finding parking spaces is , i would imagine, alomst impossible

Nightynight · 02/10/2005 13:24

yes, I would expect something more along the lines of information and reminders to parents about what is and isnt acceptable.

Pinotmum · 02/10/2005 13:27

Schools do care about parking as in please be considerate where you park and how you park and where possible try and walk your child to/from school. We get letters home regularly about this however people still continue to park on corners and then reverse onto the main road, block residents drives, park over emergency vehicle access etc. Don't see what else the school can do or should do as I prefer them to teach my child rather than run a car park rota.

fimac1 · 02/10/2005 13:59

ggglimpopo

Re car sharing - yes! yes! yes! this is something the School Travel plan through the County council could help parents organise - and as for your neighbour but not surprised -

A majority of cars on the road during rush hour are doing the school run, we are all adding to congestion and pollution and need to start thinking 'outside the box' on travel plans, the roads cannot sustain the level of growth in car usage that we are currently at, it will all grind to a halt and will be quicker to walk in the future anyway - prob like some cities are already experiencing? Sorry mentioned before but will mention here that dh is a Travel Planning officer!

I mentioned earlier that my childrens car park is being built on so as from the start of the autumn term we have all been forced to re-think drop off, pick up patterns, and it is quicker and more convienient than you probably think - one parent said to me by the time she had got both kids in the car, belted up, driven, found parking - got them both out etc etc, the walk seems like a piece of cake!

QueenOfQuotes · 02/10/2005 14:08

"A majority of cars on the road during rush hour are doing the school run, "

oh yes DH will back that one up. Before DS1 started nursery - and 'school holidays' meant nothing to us he ALWAYS knew when it was half term/holidays as he got to work, on average, about 15-20 minutes quicker than usual everyday.

hunkerpumpkin · 02/10/2005 14:09

But that's often because parents who don't do the school run, but just drive to work, are off work on holiday with their children too.

Janh · 02/10/2005 14:13

I drive to work now between 4.30pm & 5pm; in the summer holidays the journey was a nightmare and took up to 35 mins (it's 10 miles and takes 15 mins at night) but as soon as they went back to school the traffic halved and now it takes 25 mins tops, sometimes 20.

Morning rush hour v different though I can imagine!

paolosgirl · 02/10/2005 14:14

Yes - I work 3 days a week, and have 2 kids at different schools. I have to drive on the days I work, becuase I can't get to 2 schools on foot and then back home again to pick up the car to then drive 25 miles to work and be there for 9.30! Physically impossible!

That said - I am incredibly conscious of where I do park. I always park and walk - never, ever double park, park on yellow lines, park over driveways etc. In fact - I'm usually the one berating other parents for their parking. I must learn to shut my mouth, really.

fimac1 · 02/10/2005 14:40

As I said before - we will all need to think about car sharing for the school run (even if it is only one day a week) and the roads simply cannot sustain the level of growth in car usage that we are currently at and is (realistically, based on curreng growth) forecast to grow at!

  • the roads will become full % capacity and we will all be stuck in long traffic ques with no benefit of using the car!
edam · 02/10/2005 14:57

Fimac1, did your dh find out what the baseline child mortality rate for collisions is? Still interested.

fimac1 · 02/10/2005 15:08

No - he's back tonight - I will check

SoupDragon · 02/10/2005 15:09

"A majority of cars on the road during rush hour are doing the school run,"

I'd disagree that it's the majority tbh. I bet if you stopped all the work traffic for a whole week you'd notice asimilar drop in traffic to the one you get in the school holidays. And at least school run cars have more than one person in them

Anyway, school parking psses me off. THere is a black cab driver who picks up his children from DSs school and he always* parks on a corner on double yellow lines. Grrrr. Then there are the people who think that the yellow zig zags don't mean that they can't drop their little darlings off at the school gate, after all they're only stopped for a minute, it can't do any harm can it. Double grrrr

happymerryberries · 02/10/2005 15:21

Rather like putting you hazard warning lights means ' I know I'm a dick head for parking here, but I'm going to park here anyway'

I sometimes find it difficult to park at my kids schools, but alawys park purther away and walk rather than block people in etc.

I hve seen otherwise sane mothers stop the car, in the middle of the road, totaly preventing anyone else leaving or getting to the school, go in, pick up sprog and saunter out. They don't even bother to hurry ffs!

swedishmum · 02/10/2005 16:07

People round here drive to school because it's a rural community and there's no other way to get there. Likewise people have 4WDs for safety and practical reasons (Ireally miss mine, particularly in the muddy months round here).

Still, it's no excuse for the silly parking. People are often parked a good 30 mins early (I've seen them, have time to drive home, unpack supermarket stuff, have a coffee and drive back!)

Original poster
sansouci · 02/10/2005 17:10

hello, all. I can't believe the turmoil my innocent post has caused. i have been given a harder time by you lot than I was by the teacher in question.

At the risk of repeating myself, I would like to emphasise that EVERYONE (except the mummies who arrive half an hour early & get 1 of the 2 legal guest parking spaces available or else park their car in the shopping centre & take the bus to the school) has to park illegally. That is why plain-clothed police were there last week taking photos! It's a massive problem which everyone talks about. There are plans to build a proper school building with all the necessary facilities in the near future but for the moment it's same ol', same ol'.

Perhaps it isn't this teacher's problem. After all, as a staff member, she has an allocated space (which i wasn't blocking, BTW ). However, if you are employed by a private school where student's parents are paying your nice fat salary every month, it isn't really in your best interests to tell parents that you don't actually give a damn about their problems.

OP posts:
Nightynight · 02/10/2005 17:18

yes, agree with your last point, sanssouci. I think it was a very brave to confess to double parking on mumsnet actually!

SoupDragon · 02/10/2005 17:26

Out of interest, what would you expect the head to do about parking? If there's no pace, there's no space. Maybe she should have phrased it as "there's nothing I can do" rather than "It's not my problem" but unless she's a magician it sounds like there is nothing she can do.