Our children are our most precious possessions. With a new school year upon us, one of the things we have to think about is carpooling, because we are entrusting our children to other mothers and fathers. Carpooling should be taken seriously. Here are some tips that might save problems in the future.
• A carpool is a joint effort; one person should not be in charge of all the organizing. Every mother and father should share equally in decision making.
• A schedule should be printed for each member of the carpool. This should include each person’s name, address, phone number, and cell phone number. Two copies should be handed out—one for home and one for the glove compartment.
• Car seats are mandated by law. Children under the age of seven have to be placed in a booster or a car seat. Boosters are small, easy to transfer and inexpensive. Tickets are issued for each child not in a car seat, and points will also be added to your license. This can prove to be very costly.
• If you need to switch a day, it should be done as far in advance as possible, so the person replacing you has time to rearrange her schedule. In the event of a last minute problem, your replacement should be called at least an hour in advance.
• Try to stay true to your appointed day. Everyone has his or her own agenda to follow.
• Children should be ready and waiting. The driver should not have to rush while driving. When waiting for your child to be picked up, it is considerate to have someone standing by the window.
• Allow an appropriate amount of time to get to school so you don’t have to rush and the children will get to school on time.
• Always make sure the children get into their houses and into school safely before you leave.
• It is all right to do favors for other carpool mothers. If a child needs to be dropped off at someone else’s house, or have a friend along one day, it should not be a problem, as long as the request is reasonable.
• When a bus has a stop sign flashing, the driver must stop and wait for the bus to leave. Not only will you break the law by passing, but you might be endangering the life of another child.
• Always make sure all doors are shut, and all children are in the vehicle. Sometimes with older children, backpacks are placed in trunks and those children put themselves in the car. It is essential that you pay attention. Everyone should agree before the carpool starts who is responsible for buckling the children. In some carpools, parents walk their children to the car, but in others, the driver is responsible for buckling them up.
• When forming a carpool, make sure that it meets your needs. Try to stick to your neighborhood and make sure that the children are around the same age.
• If a carpool can be arranged up to a year in advance, do it. This can save you a headache at the last minute. If carpools can be organized before the summer, it will save many phone calls at the start of the school year.
• If possible, try carpooling with parents you have carpooled with in the past and have had a positive experience with.
• Try to keep the kids occupied during the ride. Just having a bag of fizzers or licorice really goes a long way. You can tell the children when you are driving them to school there will be a treat for the way home.
• It is very important to have your child ready so the excess honking does not disturb your neighbors , the children arrive on time for school and the driver is not late for work.
• If you have a carpool with four parents, there is a rotating day. The rotating day should always be the same. If your day to drive is Monday and there is a holiday on that Monday, that does not mean that you have to drive an extra ‘rotating’ day to make up for it. You just get lucky that week. It all turns out the same in the end.
• Parents should ask in advance if they can bring play dates. Ideally, parents should leave play dates for their carpool day.
• Kids should not bring toys in the car because that can cause fights.
Always remember that the children are most important. Please drive safely.
Randi Shomer is a freelance writer, mother of four children, and a community member.
