I live on a residential street in a quiet neighborhood. But you'd never know that at 7:45 each morning, where a traffic jam piles up right in front of my house. 
My older son complains about it every day, since that's the time he's getting into the car to drive himself to school.
So why the traffic jam?
It's the parents from down the block who drive their children to the school bus.
I've got nothing against this when the weather is bad. And for a while, I assumed that these parents were on their way to work and were stealing a last few minutes with their kids before heading to the office.
That's not the case, though--most of them drive right back home. Backward, down the street, behind the bus, in one case; that mom can't even be bothered to turn her car around. They park in front of driveways at houses near the corner. And even now that the weather is nice and the kids hardly even need a hoodie to ward off the morning chill, they're getting a ride to the bus. This, in a neighborhood where we have sidewalks. They're not the littlest kids, either; these kids are between third and fifth grades. Certainly they're old enough to cross a quiet residential street by themselves and wait for the bus.
And we wonder why so many kids are overweight?
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2 Responses to “Fit to Ride”
In this day and age, where children are abducted from everywhere (even quiet residential streets). I understand driving and waiting with children, even older children. My husband drives and waits with my sixth grade daughter. I think we can all be patient with the traffic it may cause.
It's certainly a valid concern that parents would want to ensure their kids' safety by waiting with them for the school bus. But in nice weather, since the parents are going home afterward anyway, there's no good reason why they cannot walk!