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Cross at the Intersection
“Why don’t you get a job?” is something you expect a disgruntled parent to yell at their millennial offspring, as the 20something sits in front of a television, playing video games for hours on end. It’s not a phrase I expected to be hurled at me while waiting to pick up my son after school.
Times and social standards have changed over the decades. I can remember walking more than one mile, often unaccompanied, to get to elementary school. Nowadays, that would be considered negligent parenting.
My younger son started sixth grade last fall. His middle school is located approximately 1/4 of a mile (2 1/2 street blocks) from where we live. Yet he expects to be escorted en route to get home, if not at the actual exit from the building. As a compromise, I started meeting him one block away (where the crossing guard stops traffic) in front of a car wash about a month into the semester.
In November, I backed up further, to the other side of the car wash. I witnessed his competence in public safety, especially in contrast to other students . Some kids made a dash as soon as the light changed, only to be thwarted by angry honking from cars still traversing the busy six-lane intersection.
Post-pandemic, fewer children are riding school buses. That means more parents and more automobiles picking them up. That means more traffic as…
