Special Snowflake Stories

[Iris]

Last night the fog in my city was so bad, you couldn't see more than 5 feet ahead of you in the car with the high beams on.  So what do I see (barely)as I'm going through a light.  A big black volvo...with no lights on trying to turn onto the street.   

Just checking - you do know that high beams make your vision *worse* in fog? The fog reflects the light back at you and you can effectively blind yourself with your own headlights. Low beams and fog lights if you have them is the ideal.

I once drove through an area that had such thick fogs that you were expected (according to the road signs) to drive with your hazard lights on during bad ones to increase your visibility to others.

[artk2002]

Just checking - you do know that high beams make your vision *worse* in fog? The fog reflects the light back at you and you can effectively blind yourself with your own headlights. Low beams and fog lights if you have them is the ideal.

Very good points. High-beams are not the same as fog lights. Fog lights are low and lite up the road, not the fog ahead of you. I hadn't heard the advice about using flashers, but it makes sense.

[ladyknight1]

Driving with hazard lights on may be illegal in your state. I would check first. It is illegal in Florida, and other drivers may think you are stopped.

[PastryGoddess]

Ah, no wonder I had to turn them off after a few minutes.  I did have my low beams on, but I don't have fog lights. 

Driving with hazards on is legal here in MD, but my car's rear driver turn signal is broken and I didn't want people behind me to think I was turning right at every single intersection

[SCAJAfamily]

A's grade school policy, which is well stated, is that no students should be dropped off before 845.  School starts at 9am.  Every other Thursday A and I need to leave the house early because the cleaners come at 815.  We get donuts and then hang out in the car down the street from the school.  He can leave at 845.

When I worked the bookfair, I needed to be there at 830 every morning to get ready.  The number of kids already on campus is amazing.  The principal sends home numerous phone messages about this - but no change.  Same with the red zone parkers, white zone parkers, and double parkers.

[Adelaide]

One of my acquaintances was recently in the same bathroom as three other girls and myself and we were getting ready for the evening. Another asked me to put some music on, so I turned on my iPhone. I have a bad habit of leaving the same song on repeat, and the one that popped up happened to be a Taylor Swift love song. A couple of run-throughs in and acquaintance has gone quiet and has started sort of slamming cosmetic utensils around. I barely register this as I'm trying to get dressed. She yanks on her clothes and is sighing and acting generally exasperated. Finally she explodes and says "UGH, can you change it to something else besides that stupid love song?! Is that all you have on your [bleeping] iPhone?!" and before I can open my mouth to say that I didn't realize it was on repeat she stomps out. A friend informed me that the girl had broken up with her boyfriend two days before and apparently it had been quite a scene. :/ Had I known I would have tried to find something better but...I didn't know.

[kherbert05]

I thought I saw a flurry of SS this morning, but now I'm not so sure.

My younger son was sick this morning, so I only had to take my older son to school. That meant he was able to go for breakfast--he usually can't because by the time we drop YDS off and get him to school it's 5 minutes before start time. Anyway, we got there about 15 minutes early (the drop off lines get long fast, and if it takes ten minutes to get to the front of the line he won't have time to eat) and were parked pretty close to the front of the school. A minute or two after we got there, someone dropped off their kid and left. The school's policy is that the doors open at 8:40 and there will be no supervision before then, and students are not allowed inside before then. With the first few kids, I was thinking "how rude of those parents to just drop those kids off 15 minutes early when the rules are very clear about when the doors open." However, by the time 8:40 rolled around, there were at least three dozen kids waiting in front of the doors. So now I don't know if this is one of those "we break the rules but the person that made the rules is OK with it" things, or if it was just a SS blizzard. My son was not happy that I wouldn't let him get out until 8:40--he saw his classmates and really wanted to go play with them.

The kids actually seemed to be doing pretty well by themselves. When it was just half a dozen kids, they were all running around chasing each other. A teacher walking in to the school reprimanded them and they calmed down until she left, then played a bit more, but as more kids started to come they broke off into groups and just stood around talking. This is a school for grades 2-5, so ages 7-11/12.

So I don't know. I'm guessing this is like my younger son's school, where people park in the bus loading zone during the times when it says "don't park in the bus loading zone," but they're gone before the buses actually come so no one throws a fit about it.

Unless they have said no dropping off early - I don't think this is special snowflakes.  Kids that age have been playing in front of the school waiting for it to open since we had schools. Our doors open at 7:00. It isn't unusual for kids and kids with their parents to be on the porch at 6:30, when the staff door opens for us. We feed almost 600 kids breakfast every school day.


For the opposite of Special Snowflakes
Until last year it wasn't unusual for some students to beg us not to close for Thanksgiving, Winter, or Spring Breaks. If you asked them why they would say - No breakfast or Lunch. Now we have a local group that delivers a couple  hundred sack breakfasts/lunches every Friday. On long holidays they come every day at 11:00 and deliver the sack breakfasts/lunches to those that are signed up.

[ica171]

A's grade school policy, which is well stated, is that no students should be dropped off before 845.  School starts at 9am.  Every other Thursday A and I need to leave the house early because the cleaners come at 815.  We get donuts and then hang out in the car down the street from the school.  He can leave at 845.

When I worked the bookfair, I needed to be there at 830 every morning to get ready.  The number of kids already on campus is amazing.  The principal sends home numerous phone messages about this - but no change.  Same with the red zone parkers, white zone parkers, and double parkers.

That's always been my understanding of the policy here--8:40 means 8:40, not 8:25 or 8:30 or 8:35. But the fact that there were so many kids there made me wonder if I've misunderstood it for the past three years.

[Otterpop]

For the opposite of Special Snowflakes
Until last year it wasn't unusual for some students to beg us not to close for Thanksgiving, Winter, or Spring Breaks. If you asked them why they would say - No breakfast or Lunch. Now we have a local group that delivers a couple  hundred sack breakfasts/lunches every Friday. On long holidays they come every day at 11:00 and deliver the sack breakfasts/lunches to those that are signed up.

It used to be that not feeding your kids was called "neglect" and authorities were called.  When were schools designated this parental responsibility?  I can understand a lunch program because kids are there all day, but failing to feed them on school break is outrageous.  We have welfare, food stamps, community kitchens, churches, etc.  There is no excuse!

[mrkitty]

I can't imagine not feeding one's own child. I don't have children, so maybe I have no right to comment, but still.

I am unemployed and we live on DH's income...which does not go too far these days. Still, I can't imagine letting our cats go hungry, much less our own offspring, if we had any.

Simply unconscionable.

[snowdragon]

For the opposite of Special Snowflakes
Until last year it wasn't unusual for some students to beg us not to close for Thanksgiving, Winter, or Spring Breaks. If you asked them why they would say - No breakfast or Lunch. Now we have a local group that delivers a couple  hundred sack breakfasts/lunches every Friday. On long holidays they come every day at 11:00 and deliver the sack breakfasts/lunches to those that are signed up.

It used to be that not feeding your kids was called "neglect" and authorities were called.  When were schools designated this parental responsibility?  I can understand a lunch program because kids are there all day, but failing to feed them on school break is outrageous.  We have welfare, food stamps, community kitchens, churches, etc.  There is no excuse!

  Times are tough.  For the working poor, those things are sometimes not an option. I have friends whose kids get three meals a day at school, and the Food stamps covers enough that they get fed on weekends...summer breaks are tough.  It is still neglect not to feed your kids,,,however the child welfare system is so overloaded that unless a kid is so malnourished that the kids are emaciated or die from it, it goes unnoticed.  Sad? Yes. But it's reality for many kids.

[nuit93]

For the opposite of Special Snowflakes
Until last year it wasn't unusual for some students to beg us not to close for Thanksgiving, Winter, or Spring Breaks. If you asked them why they would say - No breakfast or Lunch. Now we have a local group that delivers a couple  hundred sack breakfasts/lunches every Friday. On long holidays they come every day at 11:00 and deliver the sack breakfasts/lunches to those that are signed up.

It used to be that not feeding your kids was called "neglect" and authorities were called.  When were schools designated this parental responsibility?  I can understand a lunch program because kids are there all day, but failing to feed them on school break is outrageous.  We have welfare, food stamps, community kitchens, churches, etc.  There is no excuse!

There are some people who don't have access to all those options, and besides many people live in areas without a way to get to a proper grocery store (google "food deserts").  A school lunch might be the most nutritious meal a kid receives.

[Kaora]

Sounds like she is driving what she may end up being buried in.

What an interesting assumption!

No more an assumption than 'He' and 'He'. English doesn't have (commonly used) gender neutral pronouns . You've got a 50% chance of being wrong...

Which is why a lot of people go s/he.  I do agree that, no matter what gender, that person is going to be buried in that car.

Still catching up, but had to say this.  English, for a language who has lost most of its gender agreement, except in rare cases like She for vehicles, and refers to most everything in neuter terms-- does NOT have a neuter pronoun itself.  At least, not a commonly agreed on.  Man and A (Ou in Middle) used to be it in Old English, with Wer and Wif, Heo and He as specific terms, but...

I love English.  My mum, an English major, calls it a language of no paternal commitment.

[kherbert05]

I have students in my public school class that don't celebrate Christmas. My end of the term parties have Christmas cookies if the kids bring them. I don't do the Christmas games and stuff we did as kids, because honestly the kids would rather play with their dolls, legos, handhelds and my Ipads, while eating their cookies and chips. Many of the parents of kids that don't do Christmas, let their kids stay because it is a end of term party not a over the top Christmas party.


Sent home a note. Got a note back that I was excluding Student because they are Christian and they would be donating chips but pulling their kid out that day to go to his sister's room. Where they will be doing similar things but that teacher used the word Christmas in the letter.


I admit that I'm probably over thinking fairness on this subject more this year. I filed a civil rights complaint about these sermons that an administrator was sending out on school email - quoting the Bible, telling us we had to live and teach by these principles in these quotes. The district and the administrator got their hands slapped. It was supposed to be anonymous  but I'm pretty sure one of the administrator's pets figured it out and told him.

[Margo]

For the opposite of Special Snowflakes
Until last year it wasn't unusual for some students to beg us not to close for Thanksgiving, Winter, or Spring Breaks. If you asked them why they would say - No breakfast or Lunch. Now we have a local group that delivers a couple  hundred sack breakfasts/lunches every Friday. On long holidays they come every day at 11:00 and deliver the sack breakfasts/lunches to those that are signed up.

It used to be that not feeding your kids was called "neglect" and authorities were called.  When were schools designated this parental responsibility?  I can understand a lunch program because kids are there all day, but failing to feed them on school break is outrageous.  We have welfare, food stamps, community kitchens, churches, etc.  There is no excuse!

There are some people who don't have access to all those options, and besides many people live in areas without a way to get to a proper grocery store (google "food deserts").  A school lunch might be the most nutritious meal a kid receives.

Also many parents may not have the money to pay for gas/electricity and be unable to provide hot meals, or be neglectful as a result of the other pressures in their lives - yes, t's still neglect, but may not be blameworthy. It's easy to critisise when you've never been in that position yourself.

(My mother used to work in the special needs department of her local school. The department supported kids with learning difficulties, but also those who had behavioral issues. Many of the kids they supported were living in poverty and/or borderline neglect at home. The was no official way of providing these kids with a breakfast club (most were entitled to free school lunches) my Mum and her colleagues in the department decided to donate a few pounds every week to be able to give these children cereal and toast in the mornings - it made a massive difference to the kids' behavior and ability to learn when t hey weren't going into the morning hungry.
Many of them weren't getting breakfast because there was nothing in the house, and often got no cooked meal in the evening because the parents were out working and there was no one to cook it.  There are definitely people for whom the cost of an extra meal or two because the children are not at school pushes them over the tipping point (and parents may well already be going without meals in order to feed their children),