Back to School: Car-free pick-ups and drop-offs are easier

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Back to school usually means a lot of really good things for parents, especially after dealing with online school for so long. If you, like me, were working from home with two young kids safely forced into online school, then you can understand the struggle of feeling like you’re tackling three jobs at once. However, as much as I’m thrilled the kids are back in school, there is one thing that truly, truly sucks: driving. More specifically, driving to the school for drop-offs and after-school pick-ups; the younger the kid, the more frustrating the drop-off.

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I understand why it’s called the ‘kiss and ride’ lane; you’re supposed to kiss your kid (or vice versa) and then ride off. Or maybe they were aiming for simple drop-off; kiss being an abbreviation for keep it simple, stupid. But it’s never that simple! Similar to the anxiety of putting your change away while the next person is waiting for the cashier to check them out, asking your kid to unbuckle themselves, then kiss you, then grab their backpack, then get out of the car, all while there’s a lineup continuing to form down the street is enough anxiety for me to despise using a vehicle to drop off my kid in the kiss-and-ride lane.

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Have you ever tried doing drop-offs with a Chevy Tahoe ? Me neither! Don’t get me wrong, the Tahoe is amazing and ready-to-work (as are many other large SUVs), but not in a school zone — with tons of hyper kids running around. It’s massive, and it could probably eat several kids at once, without the driver even noticing. Not to mention, my little kids would have probably needed a parachute to help them jump out of the Tahoe.

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It’s not like parents can get out of the car and help, that would just take more time and now you’re holding up the traffic for a longer amount of time. To make matters worse, it’s not like the teachers can be of much assistance during the pandemic — I don’t blame them; they’re already doing more than enough in the classrooms, it’s ridiculous to ask them to unnecessarily touch more surfaces than absolutely needed.

And don’t even get me started with winter. Too late, I’m started. Driving your kid to school in the winter has got to be the absolute worst. In addition to everything previously discussed, now you’ve got to add winter gear to the equation. Car seat guidelines are sometimes confusing, but it’s safest to buckle your kid into a car seat without all the bulky winter gear .

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Unfortunately, there’s no possible way to get a four-year-old, in Junior Kindergarten, to independently unbuckle himself from a car seat, put on all his winter gear (the snow pants, jacket, mittens, scarf, and anything else that couldn’t fit with him into the car seat), then grab his backpack that’s half the size of him, all within less than the few seconds that is appropriate to stop in the kiss and ride lane.

Sure, you could park on the street (if you can find anywhere remotely close to the school) and help your kid put on all the gear and then walk the child to the designated area, but at that point, at least in my case, it would take less time to get them ready at home and walk them to school. I’m lucky enough to live almost as close to the school as the nearest parking spot on the street.

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I’m not even close to being finished with this rant, because that was just about the drop-off! You can’t even use the kiss and ride lanes for pick-ups at the end of the day. It’s filled with busses, not to mention there’s no real way of knowing when your kid is coming out. How the heck would they find you?

Unless you arrive half an hour before the final bell rings, once again, you’re not getting a parking spot anywhere near the school. And once again, you should have just walked (I tell myself over and over) because now (if it’s winter), you’ve got to lug the kids back to the car, take off the mittens, jacket, snow pants, and whatever else doesn’t fit into the car seat. Then you still have to drive home — not before figuring out how to safely get back into the traffic — and carry everything into the house where it needs to dry before everyone restarts the routine the following day.

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If you’re still with me, all I’m trying to say in this long-winded venting session is that driving little kids to school really sucks. Walking them to school will at least provide peace of mind that you’ve walked them directly to their classroom lineup, as opposed to watching them walk off into the distance, while you’re supposed to be driving away and letting the next set of parents have their moment of stress.

Moral of the story: There is a time and place for driving, but if at all possible, save yourself the stress and walk your kids to school. Yes, there’s a possibility of a thunderstorm, freezing cold temperatures, burn-inducing sunshine, or even wind that is blowing you back towards your house (thanks to unpredictable Canadian weather, regardless of the season), but in my opinion, anything is better than the kiss-and-ride lane — at least until you’ve got older and more independent kids.

Quite frankly, as much as I dislike the kiss-and-ride lanes, it’s not like I’ve got any better ideas for a less confusing or more efficient way to drop off/pick up young children. Fortunately, they won’t be young forever, and soon enough, they’ll be independently hopping out of the car without even looking back to say bye. And one day in the distant future, they’ll be driving themselves to school. Until then, I’ll take the kiss-and-walk lanes whenever I can.