The Parking Letter

After spending the year dealing with multiple school parking lots, I have a few things that I have left unsaid all year.

Dear Preschool Parents,
The rules for drop off here are simple.  Park in a parking space and walk your child in to class to sign them in.  If you have other children with you in the car, they have to come along too.  I know it is a pain, but it does create some order and a measure of safety.

Don't park in a place that is not a parking space.  It really doesn't save you any more than a few seconds to walk past 3 or 4 parking spaces and it really annoys everyone else when you act like you are a special snowflake who doesn't have to follow the same rules everyone else does.  Go ahead, time yourself. 

Don't leave your kids in the car.  It really isn't any safer than leaving them sitting in the middle of a parking lot outside of a car.

Do always have your children in appropriate safety seats.  This one drives me even more crazy than the parents who think they don't have to park in a space with the rest of us.  I know you probably live close and think it is not that big a deal to make a quick trip to the preschool without a car seat or booster.  But it is.  Since this is a preschool there is not a child here (or younger sibling for that matter) who should not be in some form of car seat.  The legal minimum weight in our state is 50 pounds, but there are seats that keep kids safer at much higher weights than that.  For more information on keeping your kids safe visit carseat.org.

Thanks,
Me

Dear Grade School Parents,
There are only a couple things I would add to the above.  First, when you are dropping off in the morning and using the drop off lane, this is not the time to go through your child's backpack. Sure, we have all gotten to school and realized that there is some leftover business to deal with.  But if there is go and park and take care of it, don't hold up the entire line of cars.  Second, at pick up, if someone is not directing traffic, be nice and let people in.  Where two lanes come together try to go every other car.  That lets everyone out faster.

Thanks,
Me

Dear High School Parents,
The only thing I would add to the above two letters is: Please don't double park on the pick up lane.  I know you just saw your kid, but she's still deep in conversation with her friend and mine is all loaded up and I was about to leave.  But now you have blocked me in until your child figures out you are there.

Thanks,
Me

And to all of the other parents in cars at schools,
I know we all annoy each other at times.  I mess up on these things too.  But if we all remember that we are trying to be considerate and keep things moving smoothly then even unexpected delays will not be as frequent or annoying.