Snow Days & Unprepared Parents

kctipton writes “I’ve read the complaints about unsupervised kids. I imagine that you get more of them when school’s out all day and even more if schools closed unexpectedly due to weather.

The Wall Street Journal has a story by Sue Shellenbarger in her “Work and Family” column called “Hiding in the Bathroom:
How Parents Cope When
School Gets Snowed Out”

It’s online (only works if you have a WSJ online subscription) and in print (January 13, 2005; Page D1).

Here’s the excerpt that made me think of LISNews:

Although working parents know that shutdowns are inevitable, many are poorly prepared and have to scramble for child-care solutions when they hear those dreaded pre-dawn announcements. Some make remarkably bad choices. At the Fairfax County Public Library in Virginia on snow days last winter, dozens of elementary-school children were dropped off unsupervised. “We were shocked,” a spokeswoman says. YMCAs, theaters and malls also report seeing unsupervised school-age kids on snow days.

I doubt the readers of the WSJ are the ones who are dropping kids off at the library — or are they?

There are some funny stories in the article and some good advice, too, if you’re a parent who gets caught on snow days without much of a plan — or you if you know one who needs some advice on what to do.”