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.”
WSJ readers kids @ the library (a side note)
Don’t bet that they don’t leave their kids at the library too… They, more than some other parents, tend to cling to the belief that the library is a “safe” place (still? was it ever?) and that we’ll look after them.
Of course, in a way, we look after them as much as we can, because human decency dictates we don’t want to see little kids hurt…
You’d be surprised, though, how many Lexuses and Mercerdes you see lined up outside the library picking up unattended kids that have just spent literally four or five hours there. And these kids are little… second or third grade.