I love you both too. Very much.
Took me a bit to edit down to that, but there it is.
We'll of course continue to argue.
Boom I think the No dogs on schoolgrounds is a good rule. One that should be respected.
Old dogs can still bite.
I think you're out of order.
Not clear why any adult or dog has to step onto school property to pick up a kid.
Not really done round here unless a parent/list-person is going into the school to get a sick kid.
boomer, can't you stand off the property with Bird and wait there?
~~~~
I'm with dadpad on respecting the rule.
Well, there is the pants on fire disease.
But, seriously, aside from bites there are also allergies and kids' fears.
Sorry, my lies aren't very good. No help there.
I cracked up when I read the post, though. Did she actually swallow it, ya think? There is the chance that she just doesn't care enough about it to pursue it further than a slight bitch.
When it comes down to it, it is just a simple school rule. No one is gonna be policing every day to see that you stick to it. So, if you don't push your luck, I see no reason why you can't get away with the occasional trip with Bird. They'll just ask you to stop, if it got to that, right?
Still thinking like ehbeth though, in that here, it is easy to wait outside the school grounds for your kid. So it wouldn't be a problem unless someone made it one.
The school is situated within a block in a strange manner so waiting off school grounds won't work. Because Mo gets out of school at an odd time and there really aren't any other kids around I've just thought it was no big deal to take the dog. I don't take Bird in the morning when all the kids are out and about.
But I shouldn't have lied. It was silly. It just sprang out of my mouth.
Bird does so love to go. She's my little timeclock - she comes to get me when its time to leave. She will be sad when I leave without her but I'm guessing those "no dog" replies are good and that I should leave her at home.
The school is within a block of your house?
The school is about 5 blocks from our house.
The school itself is situated within a megablock that would require Mo walking about a (trails that run from the school through the neighborhood)block by himself if I were to wait off of school grounds.
I trust Mo to walk a block by himself but the paths have low visiblity from the street and I'm a worry-wart.
boomer, you'll encounter many, many Butovsky Moms in the years
to come who know it all and know it better. Catering to them is a fruitless
and thankless task, so don't even try.
I think your answer was perfect and there is no need to prove to her, why Bird is with you.
Unless you're approached by a school official, you should continue taking
Bird with you.
On any given day, we have about 10 dogs and Moms
outside our school waiting for the kids to get out, and the no dog rule is in
force here too. Yet, no problem whatsoever.
CJ is right. There are tons of them, especially around schools. You learn to look right through them, as if they're not there.
These rules are in place to give the school officials some recourse in case a child gets bitten or some parent complains. That's all. I'd ignore it unless a school official tells you directly.
Obviously, the rule is not in place for pooches like Bird. But just the same, the rule should apply evenly. The pitbull owner may love his dog just as much as you love Bird. Plus, (and here's the kicker for me) the kids are watching.
Folks leave dogs tied up all the time while they have cups of coffee. Is there a place you can leave Bird while you walk up to collect Mo?
I'm with dadpad and DrewDad with regard to following the rule, but I would make an exception on the way the notification was made. An announcement in a school newspaper is no way to notify parents of new policy. Was it a notice from the school administration or from the PTO? I almost never read anything distributed by the PTO and would certainly not feel obligated to following rules that come from the school via the PTO.
On the other hand, assuming the reasoning behind the rule was adequately explained (perhaps there has already been a biting incident on the playground) and the notification of the rule was done properly (not via playground buttinskys or the PTO), I see a number of options.
1) You tell the school administration that you are boycotting the rule (civil disobidience is fine, IMO, as long as you're upfront about it) as being against your basic beliefs, and they can act accordingly. You need not respond in any way to the buttinskys.
2) You do the above but tell the buttinskys to butt out.
3) You give Bird extra hugs and biscuits, but explain that life sucks sometimes.
4) You continue to bring Bird to school under the guise of special circumstances that indicate the rules apply to others but not you.
Boomer, I hope you don't go with number 4. Like DrewDad said, the kids are watching and the message this gives isn't a good one. A slightly similar example of when I wish I had been more of a buttinsky and still kick myself many years later for not saying anything....
I was one of four parents along on a field trip to the Shedd Aquarium for M's first grade class. Before entering the area for the dolphin show, the group was told not to bring any food into the arena. Clear explanations were given how people food could find it's way into the tanks and harm the dolphins. During the show, I watched one of the other moms reach into her jacket pocket and pull out a bag of goldfish crackers. She passed the cracker bag around to the kids in her group, inviting each of them to have some crackers. She included a wink and put her finger to her lips with a shhhhh motion to each child. I almost blew a gasket on the spot. The only message those kids got was that rules are made for other people and if you're sneaky enough then you can have whatever you want.
Some of the kids in my group whinned about not getting any of the crackers. I told them they should be proud for not being part of anything that might cause damage to the dolphins.
Boomer, I have no problem with fighting back against seemingly arbitrary rules. Nor do I think you owe any explanation of any kind to the buttinskys, or need to follow rules that have come through unofficial channels, but I do think going against the rules should be above board and send a positive message to the kids.
JPB wrote:...Was it a notice from the school administration or from the PTO? I almost never read anything distributed by the PTO and would certainly not feel obligated to following rules that come from the school via the PTO....
JPB, we're on the same track. I made an assumption...could be mistaken. I assumed the new rule came from the Buttinsky Moms/PTO (same thing here) since that's who published our elementary school newspaper. But it might be different at Mo's school. If the "rule" was communicated by the school administration, it ought to be followed. Otherwise....pffffft.
I can't believe it took me three days, but here's what your dog does for you:
Bird puts out pants that are on fire.
Har!
She IS a Dalmation so the fire thing is really appropriate!
Today I was in Home Depot and saw seven dogs - yes, seven. You can take your dog anywhere in this town expect for Mo's school I guess.
I still haven't decided what I'm going to do tomorrow.
Can ya just say, if it comes up, "Heh, it was a knee-jerk response. I do stuff like that sometimes. Don't mind me." Then, if you want, say something about how sweet Bird is, etc., for context. I can't imagine that bolstering the lie would go anywhere good IRL.
At some point I realized that anyone I have to work too hard to impress is not actually someone I want to know, anyway. **** 'em if they can't take a joke.
The no-dogs on school property during school hours here is based on insurance concerns. It may be the same thing there - not so much individual parents/school rules/guidelines.
Boomerang,
Is Bird on a leash when you walk onto the school grounds? If not, maybe that would make a difference. I'd ask them if it would be ok if I brought her on the grounds as long as I have her on a leash.
boomerang wrote:
Today I was in Home Depot and saw seven dogs - yes, seven. You can take your dog anywhere in this town expect for Mo's school I guess.
I had a girlfriend who got herself and her rottweiler permanently banned from Pet Smart.
It wasn't pretty. You really gotta f*ck up really bad to get banned from Pet Smart.
No advice boom, just wanted to drop in to say you totally f*cking AWED me with that lie.
If she says anything to you, just get all up in her face and ****.
