Setting a Good Example---NOT

You learn a lot while holding aloft a stop sign, wearing the fluorescent vest of a crossing guard. One thing I've learned (well, re-learned) is that a lot of parents don't seem to realize that their kids are watching them.

We have this one mom who picks up her three boys and her nephew everyday. She parks across the street from the school. This requires that the boys must cross the (very) busy street in front of the school. There we are, my partner and I, stepping into that street every day at the end of school, stopping the cars, providing a safe path for anyone who comes to get their students. Many people utilize our services.

Except her.

She parks about 100 yards down from our corner. Then, she sits in the vehicle and gestures and hollers to the boys (one is very small) to come over right there, in the middle of the block, to get into the car. So, the boys poise on the edge of the road, looking at her, looking at the cars, hesitating, looking around to see if the little boy is with them, and hearing her shout at them to hurry up and come on over. All the cars are trying not to run over them, but the drivers are distracted as they also attempt to not be rear-ended by the other cars coming up the block whose drivers cannot see the little drama happening just over the rise in the road. It's like watching a little doggie running in and out of traffic. You just cringe, anticipating the worst.

Why not ask the boys to walk up the street and cross with us? Why not park just a little closer to the corner where we're stopping the cars? Why not teach your children to cross the street where it's safe and where it's obviously the designated place to cross?

Why not indeed.