Dillards 85: Ungodly Swim Suits It's a Cruel Summer

[Audrey2]

What I really noticed is how positive and excited Jill seemed about the school experience. I know part of it is the excitement you have as a parent when you're encouraging your child to try something new, but I also think she was genuinely excited about school. I hope she continues to enjoy her one-on-one special time with Sam, as well as her time in the afternoon when Sam is sleeping.

[Pecansforeveryone]

@kmachete14, winner, winner chicken dinner. Public education is absolutely a tool for navigating, surviving, and thriving in the outside world. It is precisely why fundies fashioned an entire movement of indoctrination based on homeschooling. It's why Michelle and JB home schooled their children. I heard a campus pastor cite that up to 80% of A.O.G. raised students will leave the church during college.  It's definitely no guarentee of leaving awful beliefs behind but it is very much a big deal.  

[freethemall]

On 9/1/2020 at 8:01 PM, AussieKrissy said:

 I also didn't like that they couldn't get an easy bake oven because they are "boy moms" Ummmmmmm 

That part made me go "what the hell?!?" especially because they weren't in any way girly or pink, the updated style is quite gender neutral. Shows that as far as they get from their beliefs with stuff like wearing pants and going to school they're still fully constrained in their strict gender roles.

[Vivi_music]

A thought came to mind when watching Jill's first day of school video. She talks about the car lane being almost an hour long to pick up the kids at school. And I thought to myself: ''He doesn't take the bus?'' My parents never picked me nor any of my siblings at school and we NEVER had a car lane that was that long (Canada here). Even in kindergarten. My elementary school had a special bus for kindergarteners separated from the big buses. They would drop us off in front of our houses and not at a bus stop.

So where I'm getting at is a question for Americans: Do you have to pay to use the school bus service? Or it is just a ''cultural'' thing where it is more common to drive the kids to school and pick them up afterwards?

 

[Audrey2]

In order to take a school bus in the United States, you typically have to live a certain distance from the school or further. Sometimes a district might bus children who would need to cross a busy street but usually when money's tight that's one of the first things that gets cut. Technically students inside this radius are close enough to walk but few children walk to school anymore the way they did when I was in elementary school in the late 70s and 80s.

[kmachete14]

@Vivi_music it depends how far from the school you live. For example, my district only provides bus service if you live outside a 1 mile radius. You have to be ready for the bus 45 minutes before school starts and might get home 45 min after school. That’s a long time for a newbie kindergartener to be on a bus with “big kids.” Jill and Derrick might not want him on the bus with older influences or just sitting for such a long commute. Also, since Jill is a SAHM with only one other kid at home, she has the time to do the pickup line. 

[marmalade]

7 hours ago, BullyJBG said:

That was AMAZING! Did you see the outfit Jill wore for the last part of it? So un-Duggar-like; but I have seen enough busy moms of young kids just change into whatever they can grab for the moment. Keep it real, Jill!

Jill had done a try-on video for Amy's store, and that spaghetti strap number happened to be the last thing she tried on. Holy brastraps, Batman! ?

[FloraDoraDolly]

3 hours ago, Vivi_music said:

A thought came to mind when watching Jill's first day of school video. She talks about the car lane being almost an hour long to pick up the kids at school. And I thought to myself: ''He doesn't take the bus?'' My parents never picked me nor any of my siblings at school and we NEVER had a car lane that was that long (Canada here). Even in kindergarten. My elementary school had a special bus for kindergarteners separated from the big buses. They would drop us off in front of our houses and not at a bus stop.

So where I'm getting at is a question for Americans: Do you have to pay to use the school bus service? Or it is just a ''cultural'' thing where it is more common to drive the kids to school and pick them up afterwards?

 

Because of COVID-19, I imagine the current busing situation in American schools is an absolute mess. (That is, in the places where kids are actually going to school. In my state, most kids are still at home.)

Under normal circumstances, the busing situation depends on the individual school district. Where I live, only the special education kids get to ride a bus to school. Everyone else has to walk or have their parents drive them. Or if they're older high school kids, they might drive themselves. I live right near a middle school, and the traffic before Covid was insane during drop-off and pick-up times. I had to plan my own comings and goings to avoid all the moms in their minivans parked up and down every street within a half-mile of that school. Not to mention all the kids who paid no attention to anybody's car except their own parent's. But the district has no money for busing.

[FluffySnowball]

8 hours ago, Vivi_music said:

A thought came to mind when watching Jill's first day of school video. She talks about the car lane being almost an hour long to pick up the kids at school. And I thought to myself: ''He doesn't take the bus?'' My parents never picked me nor any of my siblings at school and we NEVER had a car lane that was that long (Canada here). Even in kindergarten. My elementary school had a special bus for kindergarteners separated from the big buses. They would drop us off in front of our houses and not at a bus stop.

So where I'm getting at is a question for Americans: Do you have to pay to use the school bus service? Or it is just a ''cultural'' thing where it is more common to drive the kids to school and pick them up afterwards?

 

I don’t know about the US, but in Germany, it’s becoming more and more common for parents to drop their children off and pick them up again themselves. Here, school bus fares aren’t pricey and it isn’t a matter of not wanting to pay for the school year’s bus ticket. Maybe it’s convenience? Publicly visible involvement in the child’s life? I’m not really sure... 

[BullyJBG]

6 hours ago, FloraDoraDolly said:

Because of COVID-19, I imagine the current busing situation in American schools is an absolute mess. (That is, in the places where kids are actually going to school. In my state, most kids are still at home.)

Under normal circumstances, the busing situation depends on the individual school district. Where I live, only the special education kids get to ride a bus to school. Everyone else has to walk or have their parents drive them. Or if they're older high school kids, they might drive themselves. I live right near a middle school, and the traffic before Covid was insane during drop-off and pick-up times. I had to plan my own comings and goings to avoid all the moms in their minivans parked up and down every street within a half-mile of that school. Not to mention all the kids who paid no attention to anybody's car except their own parent's. But the district has no money for busing.

Yes, because of Covid-19, parents are encouraged to drive their kids to school if possible. So that may be the reason for the line-up.

[Giraffe]

A lot of places don’t have school busses or good public transit. Most of the US is hard to get around without a car. (Yes, lots of exceptions, but lots of towns across the country either have lousy public transportation or don’t have it at all)

[HeartsAFundie]

In my city, school busing is free for public school students that qualify for busing; however I do work with folks who live in towns and pay $500-$700 per year for their kids to ride the school bus.   

Until about 7-8 years ago in my city, only two groups of kids got the free school bus from K-12:  1.  Special needs kids, who had to go to the school who could best service them per IEP; and 2.  A subset of kids who lived way out on the city outskirts in a neighborhood dubbed by locals as "The Reservation" and lived too far away from a bus route.  If you were in elementary or middle school and lived near a city bus route, then you took a city bus on your own and paid for it unless you walked or got a ride.  The public high school kids got chartered city buses and bus passes were sold at the high school at reduced cost for students.  At that time and for years beforehand, my city had a huge "neighborhood school" concept and we had 32 elementary schools and 4 middle schools to service a city with approximately 90K population so most kids in elementary or middle school walked or got rides.   

When my city chose to consolidate and started building large elementary schools, reducing the number from 32 to 9, and the middle schools from 4 to 3, the game somewhat changed.  People that live more than 1.5 miles away from their closest elementary or middle school, or were in special needs or the newly created gifted and talented program now get free school busing.  Those that live under 1.5 miles away or choose to send their child to a public school out-of-neighborhood are still responsible for their own transportation.  High school kids still pay for the city charter bus.  And "The Reservation" kids still ride public school buses for free due to being so relatively far out from everything.       

None of this applies to private, Catholic and charter school kids in my city.  All in those groups are responsible for finding their own mode of transportation.    

Edited September 3, 2020 by HeartsAFundie

[squiddysquid]

I used to live across from a school, with 2 tram lines and 3 buses in walking distance, neighborhood as safe as it gets, the street was a (usually) quiet one way lane, public transport is free for schoolkids.

The car lines during drop off and pick up were insane and dangerous, parents driving onto the sidewalk (illegal, obviously) without even looking, they expected you to jump

I walked 1,5 k to elementary school, they def don't do it out of necessity, at least not in my home country

One town banned non residential cars during drop off times within 3 blocks now because it became a safety hazard

[JanasTattooParlor]

I work for a charter school that is partially public. So it services kids who were already geographically zoned for the school as well as kids we get through our charter program. I know for our school, kids who are zoned for us do not have to pay a bus fee and the buses run all over town to get them, but our charter kids, who live in the county, but not in town, have to pay $100/yr for a charter bus to bring them to school. The charter buses meet at centralized locations so parents still have to drive their kids to that stop, but they do not have to drive them to school and then go to work, which in traffic, would take forever. I wish we didn’t have to charge the charter kids, but in order to keep the service possible, we have to charge. The nice thing is that if a family has more than one kid attending through our charter program, then the fee is not $100/child, just $100/family. I feel like that becomes a good compromise because to begin with, for one kid they’re paying $0.56/day for the bus, and then that number halves with each additional child from that family that also attends. 

[SweetLaurel]

11 hours ago, Vivi_music said:

: Do you have to pay to use the school bus service? Or it is just a ''cultural'' thing where it is more common to drive the kids to school and pick them up afterwards?

I lived in the country growing up and we had to walk half a mile to catch the bus every morning.  My husband had to take the city bus to school that he had to pay for.    I had 5 kids and we moved a lot, always lived  in town and never once did we live far enough away for my kids to take the bus.  They either walked or the husband or I drove them and picked them up, and I often car pooled with other people.    We were both working parents and managed to work our schedules around the school, even if it was to take a 'lunch break' at 3 to go pick the kids up and take them home.    I live in the country now and am seeing school buses on the roads, so some are back to work.  

[OHFL2009]

I live in a semi-rural area where kids normally take the bus, but the parents in our neighborhood mentioned that with a reduced number of drivers due to COVID, the routes are much longer. For example, the middle school gets out at 4:10 and the middle school bus is scheduled to drop off in our neighborhood at 5:55. It's about a 15-20 minute drive from the neighborhood to the middle school so many parents are driving their kids right now so they don't have to sit on a bus for 2 hours. 

Growing up I went to a Catholic grade school that was about 20 minutes away, but at least half the kids in my neighborhood went there, so we had a bus. I don't know if my parents paid for it or not, it may have been included as part of the tuition payment. But the bus was from our local school district, which our school was outside the territory for. My high school didn't have any bus options other than city buses, but most people carpooled. The upperclassmen would drive underclassmen and the underclassmen would pay them $1 per ride. 

[Meggo]

I avoid the school drop off lane like it's the plague. 

My son is in before/after school care in the same building as school so I don't usually need to worry about it - and on nice days we'll walk (it takes me 7 minutes - he's 7 so takes longer). But if I need to do any drop off or pick up during the school drop off hours? I will park WAY far away and just walk.... (because usually if I'm picking up early or dropping off late - we have an appt.) 

 

[TuringMachine]

Where I grew up, New Jersey USA, there was a free bus, but it was only for children with debilities or children who lived at least 2.5 miles away from the school in town that was about 6 sq mi, so basically only a few high school students met that requirement.  I think you could also pay to get on the bus route, but spots were limited and I don't know the process for that was. We were only a block away from both my middle and elementary schools so I didn't need a bus. For high school my neighbor and my mom switched off for drop off in the morning, then I walked home. Senior year I had a car and drove.

Edited September 3, 2020 by TuringMachine

[Meggo]

19 minutes ago, Meggo said:

I avoid the school drop off lane like it's the plague. 

My son is in before/after school care in the same building as school so I don't usually need to worry about it - and on nice days we'll walk (it takes me 7 minutes - he's 7 so takes longer). But if I need to do any drop off or pick up during the school drop off hours? I will park WAY far away and just walk.... (because usually if I'm picking up early or dropping off late - we have an appt.) 

 

Bussing here is just - par for the course. I assume I wouldn't qualify for bussing since I'm super close - but if we went to the other school in town - we'd either have the bus stop at the entrance to the neighborhood - or they'd pick up from before school care. 
We don't have a lot of snow days here in Canada (oddly enough) - they just cancel or delay buses due to wind/snow/fog/cold. So if it's too cold for kids to stand out on country roads and wait for the bus - they'll cancel buses. But I don't think we've had a single snow day in my sons 3 years of school. 

I think if I lived outside the district - I'd probably have to find my own way to school. Or go to a daycare in the district so he could be picked up from there.

 

[Not that josh's mom]

I live in a rural area with no public transportation. Three towns are consolidated into one school district. A school bus picks up kids in my small town at several locations around town and takes them to the largest town to the school.  With Covid some people don't want their kids confined in busses so they drive them. Also children walking to and from schools is unfortunately not always safe. We tend to notice strangers in this small town, but it still might be scary. All reasons to drive Izzy to school. I believe they live a fair distance from his school. 

 

[medimus]

Do the schools have to have a 'pick up lane'? Can't they just get people to park and walk up to the school gates? And I don't mean adding a car park to the school. Surely it would be safer not to have moving cars so near by?

I know individual parents choose what is safest/best in their circumstances, but I really wish planners and governments would make sure there were safe walking and cycling paths to the school from all communities that they serve. With walking/cycling busses if necessary. And then busses for those that live too far (current situation obviously a problem for that, though if school starts are staggered for different classes, which they are here, the bus schedule could possible be taken in to account?)

[kmachete14]

@medimus usually car pool lines are safer, since they allow resident through traffic in the neighborhood, follow a set path around and up to the school doors, and allow the school to dismiss the children to the sanctioned guardian as their car pulls up. If parents parked, they'd be parking throughout the neighborhood in front of other people's houses in no set pattern, and then the school would have hordes of parents just coming up to the door asking for Little Timmy. The input/output traffic flow of the neighborhood would be a mess.

 The car pool lines are usually "protected" by grass & curbs, so it's not like the kids are around the moving cars . . .they called by the PA system or by a teacher with a megaphone when their car approaches. Most schools are also marked as "School speed zones" so you can only go 15mph during set hours. My experience is that the carpool line moves MUCH slower than that lol. 

Most schools in "Developed" subdivisions/suburbs ARE designed with walking & bike lanes & dedicated car pool lane patterns . . . it's just parents these days seem to like dropping and picking up their kids by car for whatever their personal/convenience reasons are. 

Edited September 3, 2020 by kmachete14

[Meggo]

27 minutes ago, medimus said:

Do the schools have to have a 'pick up lane'? Can't they just get people to park and walk up to the school gates? And I don't mean adding a car park to the school. Surely it would be safer not to have moving cars so near by?

I know individual parents choose what is safest/best in their circumstances, but I really wish planners and governments would make sure there were safe walking and cycling paths to the school from all communities that they serve. With walking/cycling busses if necessary. And then busses for those that live too far (current situation obviously a problem for that, though if school starts are staggered for different classes, which they are here, the bus schedule could possible be taken in to account?)

We had speech in a building that also housed a school. Trying to get in there around school start time (even though I was aiming for a small side lot that was specifically for the daycare and the speech therapy - and clearly marked) was insane. 
People would park in the side lot and then run their little one into school (again - a parking lot designated specially for the daycare or the speech therapy). The street in front of the school was jammed with cars all lined up to drop junior off AT the front door. If it was raining - no one seemed to want to let their kids out until they got RIGHT up to the door - even if letting them out on the street in front of the school meant they'd walk on the sidewalk along the school property and would walk right on in - not talking busy roads here. It would have been faster for most of them to just walk from their houses I'd bet. 

I know if there is an event at our school and the weather etc is decent enough to walk it - I'd much rather do that than fight the parking lot. There is a side street (really - it's a construction vehicle only road) that people park on a lot but I've nearly gotten stuck in the mud there - so … I'll just walk thanks.) 

I think I'll walk to get my kiddo this afternoon actually. He likes when I bring the dog and she'd probably LOOOVE a walk and a chance to see the kiddos. 

 

[louisa05]

Schools around here are not letting kids gather in clumps outside to wait for rides due to Covid. Dismissal is staggered for younger kids and they are in cohorts waiting then sent out when their ride is at the door.  Notice that Israel comes out the door when it’s their turn rather than already being outside.  That’s not how it works in normal times. 

[FinallyMe]

I live in a rural, geographically large, school district where walking isn’t an option, as the school is on a state route in the country.  We have a great district, but busing is an issue. There are 3 kids assigned per seat, so the kids are stuffed in there unless they are very small. Our school day is 8-2:50 and I have friends whose kids would get on at 6:30, and home around 4:15. That can be a very long day for young kids, so I try to drop off and pickup for that reason.