The School Drop Off Zone

photo credit:
 http://myparkingsign.com/student-drop-off-signs

I cannot be the only one....who is sometimes frightened by her own kind, as in mommy drivers.  Every weekday morning, as we enter my son's elementary school, there is an especially treacherous area of the parking lot: the drop off zone.  As I attempt to safely pass the drop off zone, my head on a swivel looking for an errant child, I have noticed a total lack of the use of turn signals and side view mirrors as the mommy drivers pull away from the curb after their school goer has disembarked.  Now, as a member of this species I can understand the distractions involved while dropping your child off at school, hoping you'll make it to work in time, trying to remember if you shut the garage door when you left home, and praying you didn't forget to pack your sweet little one a snack.  With all of these thoughts running through your mind, while your brain is simultaneously using it's muscle memory to tell your foot which is the brake and which is the gas pedal, it's no wonder your attention to driving details are not as sharp as normal, you've got a lot going on upstairs.

I also feel the rush of a school day morning, but I would like to remind all of us mommy drivers that the elementary school is where we are transporting our most precious cargo, let's use our mirrors for more than checking our teeth for left over breakfast and those turn signals for what they were intended, otherwise we run the risk of fulfilling that hideous "woman driver"  stereotype, and we all know we don't want to give them (as in most of our husbands) the satisfaction.