It’s official. We’re a carpool family.
1. Know the
names and addresses of the children for whom you are responsible on your car pool
days.
2. Try to meet the parents of your charges at least
once before assuming the care and keeping of their most precious possession;
there could be legal ramifications if you don’t.
3.
Ask your carpool charges if they had a good
night sleep; it’s potentially helpful if kids in your care are mostly conscious
in the event that you have a heart attack or stroke behind the wheel of the
car.
4.
Listen carefully to the conversation among
carpool passengers; you can pick up valuable intelligence about the social
folkways, fast friends and fierce “frienamies” that need to be monitored as your
child makes the passage from tween to teen.
5. Leave the house at least 5 minutes earlier than
you should; it’s less stressful to wait than be late.
6.
Alert your school that you are a participant in
a carpool; you don’t want to get arrested for kidnapping.
Don’t
1. Do not
pick a fight with the mom who is the carpool leader as Leader Moms characteristically
have a touch of OCD and abhor last minute changes to the schedule; rest assured
you will need the Leader Mom’s cooperation with a last minute change request at
some point during the school year.
2. Don’t forget to check you phone before you go to
sleep at night for the text message or email alerting you to a last minute
change in the schedule. Even if it’s
midnight.
3. Don’t pick a fight with the mom who makes the
last minute change in your schedule (at midnight) for obvious reasons (see #1) –
you need them as much or more than they need you.
4. Don’t try to engage in conversation with your
charges; they’ll completely shut down on you and then you won’t get the
valuable intelligence you need about their real life at school.
5. Don’t forget that you are invisible to the children
in your care, until you are not – and there’s power in that.
Happy carpooling!
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