Parent of the Year

No, this post is not about me and my awesome, amazing parenting skills.  This is about what I saw while I was parked in my car waiting for Ashlyn to come out of the building after school today.  

The road where the kids are let out is extremely unsafe.  There are cars parked along both sides and then there are the cars actually driving on the road.  There are two crosswalks, one across from the door on Haley's classroom building and one across from the door on Ashlyn's classroom building.  I was parked on the side of the road opposite the school.  There were two cars parked in front of me, and along came a lady and parked in front of them.  

The lady got out of her car and jaywalked across the street to wait in the grass outside the building.  I was looking through the mail, which I routinely pick up on my way get the girls each day.  I looked up and saw a kid standing along side the cars, but he looked like he was going towards the cars so I didn't think much about it.  He looked like he was about 4 years old.  A car that had picked up a kid passed by and stopped suddenly and I looked up when I heard the squealed tires and saw the same kid kind of dancing around in the traffic lane.  Then I looked over and saw the woman who had earlier crossed the street.  She didn't walk back towards the kid, she just cupped her hands around her mouth and hollered (I had my window down) "I said STAY IN THE CAR!  Get back IN THE CAR!"  And the kid got back in the car.  

Now I was probably about 15 yards away from this kid and I was freaked out.  Here was a 4 year old in the middle of the street.  And when you pick up your kids they are usually all excited about their day and they are pulling everything out of their backpack screaming Look at this!  Look at this!, and a lot of people might not be paying really close attention to the road, especially after you get past the second crosswalk, which is where I was parked, because you really don't expect anyone to be in the middle of the road that far down.  The woman, who I'm assuming was his mother, was probably about 25 yards away from him and she didn't even take one step towards him.  She yelled for him to get back in the car and then she turned away and back to the building to see if any kids had come out yet.  

So I sat and waited, because I live with a 3 1/2 year old boy, and I knew full well what was coming.  And it did.  He got back out of the car and back in the street.  He ran across the street from the car to the parked cars along the other side, meaning he crossed two lanes of traffic.  Then he ran back to the car.  At this point I started to get out of the car and get him but I couldn't because another car was coming by.  I wanted to scream I was so scared!  The boy made it back across to the middle of the road and the driver of the car on the road just layed on the horn.  The mother turned around and hollered again for the boy to get back in the car, and he started back but then I guess the car made him nervous so he turned to go to his mother and she yelled (she had still not moved toward him) "NO!  GET BACK IN THE CAR!"  And the kid is so freaked out he sits down in the middle of the road.  Right on the double yellow line.  I don't know about you, but I'm guessing that if it's hard to see a 4 year old with all the cars around it's even harder to see him when he's sitting down.  

Well, by now I was pissed off and I opened my door and started to get out, as did the driver of the car who had honked.  What happened next was even worse in my mind.  This got the woman moving and she went back and grabbed him and yanked him up to his feet.  She drug him to the side of the road and then in front of all of us she got in his face with her finger (and he's crying) and she's yelling like super meanly, and then she just beats the tar out of him.  It was just so unfair.  So terribly unfair.  I know kids of certain ages are responsible for their own actions and all that, but come on!  This kid was not responsible.  What gets me is WHY she didn't allow the kid to get out with her in the first place.  What harm would have come from that?  Why on earth did she think leaving him in the car was better?  He could have held her hand and then played on the sidewalk inside the fence if she'd let him get out.  But leaving him like that he could have been run over and killed.   And where does she get off beating him for that?

I am not one to ever tell anyone how to raise their kids.  I don't dispense parenting advice.  Want help getting pregnant?  I'm your girl.  I've got that mastered.  I'm awesome at that.  All the other stuff is not my business.  But I really really wanted to slap that lady right across her face.  Someone needs to.  There will come a time I'm afraid where she won't be as lucky as she was today.