I’ll Follow The Rules, But I’ll Also Flip The Bird

Some reader feedback to today’s column. Thank you for the great e-mails!

MIS carpool is a scary place. I have only done it once, and will never go back. Last year was my oldest child’s first day of fifth grade. As we drove up smiling with first day nerves, this dad pulls through the main section of High School honking his horn, veins literally bulging from his neck, with children still in the car!!!  Nobody could figure out what they were doing wrong. I’m pretty sure  our mere existence was the problem. I was seriously scared of him. He was driving an SUV, the sports car must have been in for a service.

We live right across the street from [HPISD school] and and drop-off, pick-up and voting times are completely chaotic.  It’s like each parent thinks that he/she is the only one in the whole area and can do anything he/she wants (no matter how inconsiderate), from  stopping in the middle of the street (when there are cars parked on both sides of the street and only room for one car to get through), to leaving his/her car parked unattended in front of our driveway for who knows how long.  I feel your pain.

I have never encountered such rude people as at car pool in my life and was beginning to think I was the only one.

I have often thought HPMS car pool lane is one of the most frustrating, curious and dangerous places.  I am sure that your honking dad did not even realize what grave danger he was in– considering your state of mind.  I would like to share a brief story of another middle- aged exec dad who was in a very risky spot himself– this time it was I who was planning bodily harm.  My child and I were riding to HPMS on our bikes.  A black Mercedes sped past then pulled directly in front of us and quickly came to a stop.  The door flew open and a child emerged.  It was only luck–since I am not a very skilled bicycle rider–that kept me from running head-long into the kid and car door.  Although the parent in question was clearly busy and important thus could not be bothered to actually enter the queue lane, I thought that he might qualify for the “just ban dads in sports cars from the carpool lane all together” category?