Friday, October 2, 2009

You Yellin’ at ME?

Today was my second Friday volunteering for parent patrol at Braedyn’s school, where I help kids and parents cross the street. This volunteer job is not without its perks, let me tell you. I do get to make quite a fashion statement with my bright neon yellow jacket with the words PARENT PATROL across the back. And the hand-held stop sign gives such a rush of power. I mean, cars listen to me! My kids don’t even do that!

Stop

When asked if I would volunteer, of course I gave an enthusiastic “Yes!” I mean, what’s better than giving your self-esteem a boost doing your civic duty AND being a role model for your kids at the same time!? I did pick the busiest intersection however, which as a rookie parent patroller may not have been the wisest move. I did it in order to be right by the Kindergarten corner, so I could give sporadic glances over to my son in the play area.

So what – two cross walks. No biggie, you are thinking. Well, throw in soccer moms running late to school, cars coming from three directions, people coming from ALL directions, and you can see how this becomes a bit of a challenge.

Generally speaking, I get lots of “Go Parent Patrol” shout outs, many “good morning” acknowledgements, and lots of thank you’s. It is actually a nice way to start my Fridays.

And then, there are days like to today when a MOM YELLED AT ME WHILE DOING MY VOLUNTEER WORK. Yup. Yelled at me. She said that I can’t just jump in the street. Given how many cars and how many people were waiting on little ole me, I simply said, “I’m doing my best.” After she drove off, I kind of kicked myself for not ending that sentence with “bitch.”

I know it seems like an easy job, and for most of the time I am out there, it is. But there are about five minutes where the traffic, both auto and foot, is very high, and it is an intense job.

To that lady who yelled at my VOLUNTEER work today, I’d just like to say, if you think you can do a better job, I’ll show you where to get the brightly colored fashion-statement jacket, and I welcome you to do some VOLUNTEER work yourself. Bitch.

4 comments:

  1. You should do the dancing cop thing like in New York. Then you can be on the news.

    Of course, you can also be on the news if a semi plows down a kid...

    You choice.

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  2. ha ha ha!! Great post..... Sorry I yelled at you;)

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  3. Sadly the first thing I thought when I saw the stop sign on your post was "Hammer Time". LOL.

    Seriously though, some people just don't give a crap about anyone.
    When we lived in Vegas, Jason was driving out of our neighborhood to go to work. A little kid was trying to cross the street which was fairly busy in the AM and no cars would stop for him. So Jason pulled out and blocked the road in one direction so the poor kid could cross. He got flipped off and screamed at by some bitch in a BMW.

    Next time someone harasses you, say to them "Why don't you pull over and help out then! Be part of the solution, not part of the problem."

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  4. Some people have a hard time stepping out of themselves and seeing the world around them. Bravo for volunteering, and as we used to say when I was a lad, "F*** 'em if they can't take a joke..." Though I'm not sure exactly how that applies here...

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