Here’s the lead up to my question about sanity and parenting:
Yesterday at the fair, my friend and I bought some tickets together so that all the kids could go on two rides. The kiddie rides are separate from the “big” rides, and Kyla was big enough to go on any of the little rides she wanted. Her first ride was a really cool caterpillar roller coaster—her first coaster! It was the biggest—and most popular-- kiddie ride. Since there were four other kids for us to get on rides, I brought Kyla over to the roller coaster line, gave her four tickets, and told her that she was to stand behind this nice lady in the red T-shirt pushing a stroller. Then I left her to get Piper and Wesley on their rides. I came back later to check on her and she was doing great and told me that she really didn’t need to be checked up on when she was just standing in line. She got on the ride herself, seemed perfectly fine that she was in the last car by herself (no other singletons?), and she LOVED the roller coaster.
[This is not the part of my sanity that I’m questioning, if you are wondering. I actually wasn’t worried about her.]
Tonight, Dwayne and I had curriculum night at the school where we met the kindergarten teacher, learned about the class routines, etc. When she talked about before- and after- school transportation, I thought I misunderstood her when she said that drop-offs needed to park cars down in the lot then walk up (the length of a spread out school) to drop off our child with the supervisor. I tried to clarify, “For the first few weeks, right? Then the kids can walk up themselves?”
Um, I’m pretty sure she was trying to believe that she had misunderstood me. She said (and other returning parents seemed to agree) that maybe by January or February, some of the kindergarteners would be ready to walk up with an older sibling. There was vocal unanimity that it was too busy, too crowded, too unsafe for a child to walk along the wide sidewalk running along side the school. If it’s not safe, shouldn’t this be addressed? If it is safe, why can’t my child walk there herself by, say, October? And, I’ll have to do the same thing when picking her up, except lug Piper and Wesley with me.
Perhaps in a month, I will concede to the conventional wisdom of walking a 6-year-old on a school sidewalk to her meeting place. If so, I will confess publicly on this blog. In the meantime, I’m going to try to subvert the silent parents to supporting another way of doing things.
Yes, I did used to be a public school teacher. But I taught at alternative secondary schools and I’m not used to regular school mentality.
So, what would other parents want to do with their 6-year-old?
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