For a lot of parents, the most stressful part of the morning is sitting in the school drop-off line. There are cars and kids everywhere, traffic is at a stand-still and few people seem to know where to go. Parents and school workers alike get caught up in the chaos, and this school year they’re speaking out in hilarious ways.
“Teach them how to tuck and roll”
Texas mom Lateasha Witherspoon went viral on TikTok with a no-nonsense public service announcement about the rules of the school carpool line. “It’s the third week of school, and people still don’t understand how the drop-off line goes, so I’m going to help y’all out,” Witherspoon says in her video.
She keeps recording as she pulls up to her kids’ school and they get out of the car. As they’re doing this, she talks viewers through the process. Here are her rules for the school carpool line:
- Kids need to sit on the passenger side of the car.
- If you have multiple kids, teach them how to slide to the passenger door to get out.
- When you’re three cars away from the drop-off point, tell kids to get ready to go.
- Kids should put their backpacks on before it’s time to get out of the car.
- Show kids how to open the car door and let them do it themselves.
- Don’t park your vehicle in the carpool line.
“It’s not a stop; it’s a yield,” Witherspoon jokes. “We’re already going five miles per hour. We’re going to reduce that thing down to three, but it’s not coming to zero. We’re gonna’ teach them how to tuck and roll.”
PTAs get creative with carpool rules
Witherspoon isn’t the only one speaking out about chaos at school drop-off. This year, the Austintown Elementary PTA in Ohio also went viral for putting out hilarious, meme-inspired signs to direct parents.
The signs feature celebrities like M.C. Hammer saying, “Can’t park here,” or Ryan Gosling saying, “Hey Girl, move your car all the way up.”
One sign calls back to the popular scene in the TV show Friends when two of the stars try to move a couch up a set of stairs. “Pivot,” it says. “Out of the drop-off line!”
Jessica Lipillo, the Austintown PTA president, says she got the idea for the signs from the Mountain View School PTA in Arizona.
“The whole purpose of the signs was to lighten the back to school mood and make parents less stressed about drop off,” she says.
School drop-off is a major parent pet peeve
All of this honesty about the potential horrors of school drop-off is resonating with parents. Austintown Elementary’s signs were featured on major news networks, like NBC’s Today. Meanwhile, Witherspoon’s TikTok video has gotten more than 19,000 comments and nearly 460,000 likes since it was posted on August 25.
“Nothing gave me road rage more than the school drop off line,” one parent admits in the comment section.
“We have people parking in the line and leaving their cars to walk the kid to the door, and it makes me insane,” another person writes.
There are plenty of reasons why some parents might need more time in the school drop-off line. They may have young preschoolers or Kindergarteners who are just starting school for the first time. Some kids have disabilities and need extra help. Others, like one mom in Witherspoon’s comments, say they just like to give their kids extra hugs and kisses in the morning.
“I’m a ‘take more time’ parent, so I park in the parking lot and walk up,” one person writes. “Drop-off is just that: drop and go.”
Despite the different scenarios playing out in each car, one thing most parents seem to agree on is the fact that morning drop-off can get pretty hectic.
“I prepped my kids before the first day,” one parent shares. “When it came time, I rolled up and shouted ‘NORMANDY,’ and they stormed the beach!”
Whether it’s funny signs, instructional TikTok videos or preemptive battle plans, whatever gets the kids inside the school is OK by these parents.
