To A Not So Wonderful Mother

[BrenDAnn]

The skating rink across the street from C-Store closed at nine tonight. At around quarter after nine, your son wandered in, and asked if he could wait for you inside the store. No problem. I'd rather have him inside than out in the cold. Your son was quiet, sat in one spot, and tried to stay out of the way. That leaves me with only one question. Why, in the name of all that is holy, were you an hour late picking him up? What was more important than that, at nine or ten at night? Do you realize that it's cold enough to cause frostbite, had he waited outside? Do you realize the humiliation he went through because everyone was wondering where you were? I honestly felt sorry for the kid. At least he had a phone, so he had SOME line of communication with you. Poor guy.

[raudf]

Unless an emergency cropped up, mommy needs a long stripe removed from her hide verbally about not paying attention to the clock. And if there WAS an emergency, mommy should have arranged someone to get him and let him know what the hold up was.

Ugh, this happened often with the boys group I was a leader in. We had a mother that would come in with her son (as required by group rules - a parent had to be with the youngest boys at all time) and she'd sneak out during the meeting. She wouldn't tell anyone, she'd just vanish going off to do who knows what in her car. When it'd come time to pick up her boy, she'd be 30 to 40 minutes late! This tied up two leaders (because group rules required two leaders) and made us have to reschedule our lives, including me getting home by 10pm on a school night!

Finally broke down and called the listed home phone and the father picked up. This piece of crap mother was supposed to be there bonding with their son, per the father's orders! The boy still came, but it was the father who brought it from then on. I think there was a divorce involved in that, because after a month or two, the guy seemed much happier.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Ugh, this happened often with the boys group I was a leader in. We had a mother that would come in with her son (as required by group rules - a parent had to be with the youngest boys at all time) and she'd sneak out during the meeting. She wouldn't tell anyone, she'd just vanish going off to do who knows what in her car. When it'd come time to pick up her boy, she'd be 30 to 40 minutes late! This tied up two leaders (because group rules required two leaders) and made us have to reschedule our lives, including me getting home by 10pm on a school night!

My guess is she was screwing her boyfriend out in the car.

[BigBird]

We used to get parents like that when I was a Brownie and Girl Guide leader. There was one winner who would drop off her kid 30 minutes before the meeting, which meant the child was often waiting alone when the first leader arrived, and the same mom was ALWAYS at least 20 min. late to pick up her kid at the end of the meeting, which meant one of us had to stay late to wait for her. Half the time she was on her cell phone when she arrived, and just yelled at her kid to get in the car when she did show up. We finally got permission from our regional director to turf the kid from the group as the mother never responded to repeated warnings. Too bad, as the little girl was a sweetie.