Over Protective Parents [Split from WGMG]

[ken0042]

My issue with this parent is the same as I have with idiots in traffic- what if every parent did exactly what she did? So in this case you would have 30 or 40 cars following the bus, all trying to keep up.

To me, that potential for a major traffic issue should have been easily conceivable to the parents. At the very least they should have known that the bus driver would now be paying extra attention to them following the bus; and less attention towards his job of keeping the kids safe. And in the end it is a final irony that because they wanted to see first hand that their child was safe that they actually put them at risk. Fotunately the traffic incident they witnessed was extremely minor.

If they wanted to know the route, then get the map and drive it on their own. If a danger did ever come up all the parent could do is witness their child in said danger; would it be better to see your kid die with your own eyes?

[photon]

The first thing that I thought of for following the bus is far simpler; maybe the kid was freaked out about taking the bus and following the bus was to help the kid do it so they can see it's not a big deal?

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by photon

The first thing that I thought of for following the bus is far simpler; maybe the kid was freaked out about taking the bus and following the bus was to help the kid do it so they can see it's not a big deal?

Well that didn’t work so well, did it With mommy in hysterics and a runaway bus. Good lesson here.

[missdpuck]

Originally Posted by Mirajj

I think that the issue is more that folks who don't have kids are sick of employers bending over backwards for those who DO have kids, often to the detriment of those without.

I have someone at my workplace like that. A lead hand who has to spend every weekend and every holiday with her kids. She's not worked a single weekend or holiday in the years I've been with the company, because "she's got a family she has to think about".

Well, so do I. It may not involve a kid, but I'd like to spend some time on the weekends or holidays with my wife and/or my parents.

It wouldn't even be so bad if the need to work weekends was rotated among those who could do it, but no. Because she has kids, she's exempt. I think that's what gets most non-parents irked with parents.

At my work people with kids are usually given priority.

We would all love to come to work earlier but despite petitioning we have an 8-4:30 schedule and you'd have to have a dire emergency to deviate from that. If you want to come in at 8:30 though it's okay.

One woman is allowed to come at 7 because of her kid. I'm glad they accomodate her. But if childless Joe wants to come in at 7:30 so he can make it to class on time after work he can forget about it.

Even though the leave schedule is full, Sally can take off Saturday for her
kid's dance recital, but Alice can't get off to do her art show, which is something obviously important to her. That's the only thing that aggravates me about it. I'm all for reasonable flextime for everyone, but make it fair.

And with the way the school bus drivers are around here I'd have an awful time putting my kid on the bus! Waaaaaaah. It just makes me cringe.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by missdpuck

At my work people with kids are usually given priority.

We would all love to come to work earlier but despite petitioning we have an 8-4:30 schedule and you'd have to have a dire emergency to deviate from that. If you want to come in at 8:30 though it's okay.

One woman is allowed to come at 7 because of her kid. I'm glad they accomodate her. But if childless Joe wants to come in at 7:30 so he can make it to class on time after work he can forget about it.

Even though the leave schedule is full, Sally can take off Saturday for her
kid's dance recital, but Alice can't get off to do her art show, which is something obviously important to her. That's the only thing that aggravates me about it. I'm all for reasonable flextime for everyone, but make it fair.

And with the way the school bus drivers are around here I'd have an awful time putting my kid on the bus! Waaaaaaah. It just makes me cringe.

Yeah it has to be fair. Some workplaces encourage their employees to take extra classes to advance their career but then are not flexible with the hours so Joe Blow has to rush to his classes.

I haven't been on a school bus in a long time (obviously) is it alot worse today? We were all on school buses for years and years and I think we turned out ok!

[SeeBass]

[QUOTE=missdpuck;2657515]At my work people with kids are usually given priority.

We would all love to come to work earlier but despite petitioning we have an 8-4:30 schedule and you'd have to have a dire emergency to deviate from that. If you want to come in at 8:30 though it's okay.

One woman is allowed to come at 7 because of her kid. I'm glad they accomodate her. But if childless Joe wants to come in at 7:30 so he can make it to class on time after work he can forget about it.

Even though the leave schedule is full, Sally can take off Saturday for her
kid's dance recital, but Alice can't get off to do her art show, which is something obviously important to her. That's the only thing that aggravates me about it. I'm all for reasonable flextime for everyone, but make it fair.

And with the way the school bus drivers are around here I'd have an awful time putting my kid on the bus! Waaaaaaah. It just makes me cringe.


That is just like when I used to work in the restaraunt biz.
People that smoked would take about 10 smoke breaks a shift at 10 minutes each while you watched their section. But if I sat down in the back for 5 minutes it was like "what are you doing?"

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by fotze

You guys sure work at some moronically managed places. Should probably find somewhere else to work.

I hear school bus drivers have lots of flexibility to their schedules with great hours and good pay

[The Goon]

Originally Posted by Ducay

If only more parents were like Red Foreman, this continent wouldn't be filled with so many pussies coming of age right now.

[missdpuck]

As for the school buses, I think it's a Florida-driving thing! Seriously, every day I watch a fleet of about 15 buses Most of them make a left at the intersection where there is no light and they have to cross a median to get to the other lane. Zoooooom! Maybe it just looks really bad from my vantage point. They don't even stop at the stop sign.

I've never taken a school bus. My grade school and junior high were right across the street from eachotherand only a relatively short walk away from home. I still remember those walks, past a park and the stadium (the jr high used to be a high school ; the stadium was incredible and used by the new high school)They were often the best part of the day. Especially when we went across the highway to get bagels before class!

For high school here in Fla. I rode my bike to my cousin's house, then we walked the 5 blocks to school. So I was spared any school bus trauma

Perhaps we should split into a Nostalgia Thread For some reason I'm tearing up. I often think about going back up to NJ to recreate one of those magical walks. The bagel place is still there. I wouldn't mind checking out my old schools. But maybe I'm just remembering it all wrong, and it would be a big disappointment.

[missdpuck]

Originally Posted by fotze

You guys sure work at some moronically managed places. Should probably find somewhere else to work.

Well you know where I work fotze. I mean, what did I expect

[The Yen Man]

My only beef with my company is that, when people's kids are sick, they're allowed to take a "sick day" off to stay home and take care of their kids. When my parents are sick and don't speak English, I have to take a vacation day to take them to the doctors. Why the double standard?

[Boblobla]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

My only beef with my company is that, when people's kids are sick, they're allowed to take a "sick day" off to stay home and take care of their kids. When my parents are sick and don't speak English, I have to take a vacation day to take them to the doctors. Why the double standard?

Just my opinion, but that doesn't sound like a double standard to me. Those are two completely different issues.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

My only beef with my company is that, when people's kids are sick, they're allowed to take a "sick day" off to stay home and take care of their kids. When my parents are sick and don't speak English, I have to take a vacation day to take them to the doctors. Why the double standard?

Where do you guys work that your employers are so strict?

Shouldn't your employers trust the employees to use their flex and sick days responsibly? I mean, I don't think you guys are high schoolers working entry level jobs anymore, please tell me you guys don't have to bring in Dr.'s notes

If I want to "waste" a sick day to take my parents to the Dr, then I should be able to.

[missdpuck]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

My only beef with my company is that, when people's kids are sick, they're allowed to take a "sick day" off to stay home and take care of their kids. When my parents are sick and don't speak English, I have to take a vacation day to take them to the doctors. Why the double standard?

That sounds like it should be dependent care in both cases.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by Boblobla

Just my opinion, but that doesn't sound like a double standard to me. Those are two completely different issues.

Why? Are parents somehow less of "family" than "kids"? What if they were grandparents who are in their 80's who need extra care?

I understand kids are important and I totally understand if a company wants to be flexible to cater to people with them. But why do people who don't have or choose not to have kids not get the same treatment? I find it's absolutely a double standard, and sadly, I don't see it going away. I guess it's just the way things are, but it's still annoying sometimes.

[missdpuck]

Is it France that gives people lots of time off to take care of parents/kids? The only info I have on that is from the movie "Sicko" really.
I'm all for people taking care of their kids. But I've often felt almost penalized for not having any, as if I'm some kind of inferior person.
They should actually be thanking me

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by flameswin

CC's take: 19 thanks
Mr.Coffee's take: 0 thanks

CC's take on parenting wins.

I wasn't totally disagreeing with him? Just saying his post was a little too "back in my day" and a little bit too judgey of the parents of today. Yeah, following a bus around is ridiculous. But keep in mind when you were a kid, the city and communities were smaller, neighbours knew more about each other (and actually... *gasp* spoke to each other) and the knowledge about potential dangers and impacts were less.

Kids grow up and kids change. Parenting is one aspect of many influences that shape a person. If a 13 year old kid is spouting off, does that mean they'll do it when they mature? Not necessarily. There will always be good people, bad people, nice people, stupid people, jackass people, hilarious people... just because you were raised a certain way, doesn't mean other ways are wrong. That's all I'm saying.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Yup, parent of 3.

Keep in mind, he used to have five

[GGG]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

My only beef with my company is that, when people's kids are sick, they're allowed to take a "sick day" off to stay home and take care of their kids. When my parents are sick and don't speak English, I have to take a vacation day to take them to the doctors. Why the double standard?

Most sick day plans and other benefits are about employee retention and "Work Life Balance" Parents have been a well represeneted group in the work place over the past 50 years compared to non-parents. Therefore when companies draw up retention plans they look keeping employees with kids happy as a more important part of the retention plan than those without kids. Also young people represent a lot of the single people and new employees are less valued than long term employees.

Over time as there are more non-parents in the work force retaining them will be a priority and a shift will take place. This is already happening with the implementation of flex time and flex days over the old fashioned notion of sick time.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

My only beef with my company is that, when people's kids are sick, they're allowed to take a "sick day" off to stay home and take care of their kids. When my parents are sick and don't speak English, I have to take a vacation day to take them to the doctors. Why the double standard?

I don't understand why you have to justify your sick time at all. Just say you have a doctor's appointment and have to take a couple hours off, or call in sick for the day. As long it doesn't exceed the company's policy on sick leave, they shouldn't care why you're taking it off. With the privacy and discrimination laws being what they are, is a company going to risk opening itself up to a lawsuit by prying too hard into your personal life?

______________________

On another tangent, a few people have defended the modern-day over-protective parent by saying that when we were younger (I'm assuming most of those "we" are between 25 and 40), the dangers weren't as well publicized or scary as they are today.

Probably the most famous child abduction/murder committed in public by a complete stranger was the Adam Walsh murder. His father, John, became a strong public figure in his campaign for the protection of abducted and exploited children, which eventually led to his role as the host of America's Most Wanted. The Walsh family's story was turned into two television movies. I'm 37 and Adam Walsh was a little over a year younger than me. His abduction occurred in 1981.

In Canada, over the course of less than a year in late 1980 through the summer of 1981, Clifford Olson abducted and murdered 11 kids between the ages of 9 and 18 in BC's lower mainland.

It's not like we were living in some idyllic 1950's black and white sitcom.