# I pit my obsessive-parent neighbor **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 28, 2013, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396 "2013-08-28T13:02:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/101 "2013-08-29T11:59:25Z")
> [@armedmonkey](#): > > I drive my kid because she’s skeeved out by the guy who lives across the street from the bus stop. He’s there in his window every morning wearing nothing but a pair of polka dot boxer shorts and a horned viking helm like some kind of low rent Conan. Just standing there watching the kids and eating a hot pocket. I don’t think the guy even has a job - nothing professional, anyway. I make a decent living. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/102 "2013-08-29T12:48:00Z")
> [@storyteller0910](#): > > Throughout this thread I and others have discussed a possible “other reason:” that those few minutes in the car represent an opportunity for private conversation, discussion of the days plans, and just general undistracted one-on-one parent-child time that isn’t always easy to find. I noted that my own parents specifically drove me to school every day for exactly this reason. > > Did you not see those posts, or do you reject this reason? If the latter, why? Y so serious? Anyway, your parents driving you to school is a little different from your parents driving you a couple of hundred yards up the street and then whipping a Uey to go back home afterward. And one presumes that your parents didn’t drive a couple of hundred yards up the street to the bus stop in the afternoon in order to spend a precious, what, 30 seconds on the drive back to your house? I freely admit that there are all sorts of reasons why someone might want to drive an insanely short distance to the bus stop with their kid, but I happen to think that a large number of those reasons are probably dumb and involve not wanting to walk 200 yards because walking is harrrd. Hence privately judging. Which I shall continue to do at my own bus stop on a daily basis. Would anyone care for a Camp Awesome lanyard? ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/103 "2013-08-29T12:54:32Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Would anyone care for a Camp Awesome lanyard? I would, except the lanyards at Camp Awesome are made by kids, so they’ll fall apart after a week. The lanyards at Camp Helicopter are made by parents, with the kids simply taking credit for the work, so they’ll actually be well made. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/104 "2013-08-29T13:06:04Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > I freely admit that there are all sorts of reasons why someone might want to drive an insanely short distance to the bus stop with their kid, but I happen to think that a large number of those reasons are probably dumb and involve not wanting to walk 200 yards because walking is harrrd. Hence privately judging. Which I shall continue to do at my own bus stop on a daily basis. > > Would anyone care for a Camp Awesome lanyard? I would like to point out that the OP said 150-200 **feet**. Of course, it may have been a misprint, or indeed a misunderestimation (I love that word). I HOPE it was a misprint. I’m terribly afraid it wasn’t. Are there really people in this world who would get in a car to go _sixty metres_? On this board, indeed? My heart quails… BTW - No lanyard for me, but I’m a size 14 in t-shirts. kthxbai! ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/105 "2013-08-29T13:25:39Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > sixty metres? ! We spell it “meters” over here, Bruce. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/106 "2013-08-29T14:39:53Z")
Well, I can ALMOST understand the rationale for dropping the kid off in the morning. It’d be easier to understand if the kid and parents were actually talking, instead of both playing with their phones or kid playing with phone while Mom reads a book, which is what I typically see around here. But in the afternoon?? When it’s a less-than-a-minute walk from the bus stop? What can you accomplish in that less-than-one-minute that you can’t accomplish after the kid walks home? ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/107 "2013-08-29T15:48:00Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Count again, Worty. One oldest; two youngest; three in the middle. That makes…\* um, two, four, carry the one…\* six. 🙂 > > I could up the count by either two or three more if the definition was loosened to “kids I significantly helped raise.” The oldest of those has kids in high school. > > Very much a case of “what doesn’t kill you makes you stranger.” I mean, stronger. > > BTW, if I knew any likely reason for “Tiffany’s” chauffeurage, or couldn’t exclude most possible reasons, I never would have posted this in the first place. Any more than 5 don’t count. ---
**Author:** ![Crumbled\_Bumble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ac91a4/32.png) [@Crumbled\_Bumble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crumbled_Bumble)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/108 "2013-08-29T15:49:01Z")
God damn, you people are judgmental. Hell, I’m judging you all right now. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/109 "2013-08-29T16:07:51Z")
> [@armedmonkey](#): > > We spell it “meters” over here, Bruce. No we don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/110 "2013-08-29T16:28:49Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Would anyone care for a Camp Awesome lanyard? I’ll take one. My parents were insanely overprotective and I was unleashed every morning to walk three blocks over and _cross the street_ to wait at my bus stop. That was in high school. Elementary? I grew up in Michigan and had to cross Dequinder Road which was a major four lane road - there was a crossing guard and everything, and I had some blocks to walk home. Walk the 200 yards. I totally judge the woman. Or at least let the kid walk home by herself. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/111 "2013-08-29T17:11:52Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > Well, I can ALMOST understand the rationale for dropping the kid off in the morning. It’d be easier to understand if the kid and parents were actually talking, instead of both playing with their phones or kid playing with phone while Mom reads a book, which is what I typically see around here. > > But in the afternoon?? When it’s a less-than-a-minute walk from the bus stop? What can you accomplish in that less-than-one-minute that you can’t accomplish after the kid walks home? Special needs [del]children[/del] parents. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/112 "2013-08-29T17:18:12Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > No we don’t. Damnit, the Aussie was bad enough, but now I have to deal with a francophile, too? International Weights and Measures can suck my 23 “centimetre” dick. Fucking “metre”. I swear on Apple Pie and the very _soul_ of the Vince Lombardi Trophy that I will never look at, or refer to, a large bottle of Coca Fucking Cola as two “litres”. Fuck “metre”. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/113 "2013-08-29T17:21:28Z")
Francophile? Moi? Not hardly. **Edit to ask:** Who’s Vince Lombardi? ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/114 "2013-08-29T17:26:12Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > **Edit to ask:** Who’s Vince Lombardi? Gahhh! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/115 "2013-08-29T20:55:33Z")
> [@Crumbled\_Bumble](#): > > I remember when I had my first beer… It was my second! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/116 "2013-08-29T21:26:13Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > In your vast parenting experience? > > If a parent says that’s what they’ve done, it’s pretty ludicrous to say no parent has ever done that. As a parent, whose kids’ bus stop was two houses over, this explanation seems perfectly credible. I’d drive my kids on cold or really rainy days and really enjoyed the time in the car chatting or signing to the radio. While that’s not why I drove them, I could see another parent choosing to carve out a bit of time together that way. The child might think its stupid, and it may not be the best idea, but I could absolutely envision a parent doing it. > > Just because someone in this thread “rejects” that explanation doesn’t magically make it impossible. What are you responding to? I don’t believe anyone, much less me, said that no parent has ever done this since the OP is _about_ a parent doing just that. Also, it has been pointed out that this mother does it every day no matter what the weather so it isn’t about rain or cold affecting pwecious, and that the ride home after school is all of 30 seconds, so it isn’t a matter of carving out time (which is pathetic anyway). The rejects thing was in response to **storyteller0910**. Please read the posts, quit ass-uming and try to keep up. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/117 "2013-08-30T01:27:26Z")
> [@armedmonkey](#): > > Damnit, the Aussie was bad enough, but now I have to deal with a francophile, too? International Weights and Measures can suck my 23 “centimetre” dick. Fucking “metre”. I swear on Apple Pie and the very _soul_ of the Vince Lombardi Trophy that I will never look at, or refer to, a large bottle of Coca Fucking Cola as two “litres”. > > Fuck “metre”. There there. You can have “yards” if you like. I’m okay with yards. They’re just met\*\*s in disguise after all. So. Driving _sixty fucking yards_!!! _points and laughs_ Ha-ha! [/nelson] ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/118 "2013-08-30T02:23:29Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > What are you responding to? I don’t believe anyone, much less me, said that no parent has ever done this since the OP is _about_ a parent doing just that. Also, it has been pointed out that this mother does it every day no matter what the weather so it isn’t about rain or cold affecting pwecious, and that the ride home after school is all of 30 seconds, so it isn’t a matter of carving out time (which is pathetic anyway). > > The rejects thing was in response to **storyteller0910**. Please read the posts, quit ass-uming and try to keep up. I read you just fine. I know exactly who you were replying to and I was chiming in my opinion too, in agreement with her sentiments. Never said it was about the cold. I said that _in my experience_, I drove my kids when it was cold and I enjoyed the time, so I could see how _another parent_ might want to do it more often. How about you read and keep up. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/119 "2013-08-30T05:31:46Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > I read you just fine. I know exactly who you were replying to and I was chiming in my opinion too, in agreement with her sentiments. > > Never said it was about the cold. I said that _in my experience_, I drove my kids when it was cold and I enjoyed the time, so I could see how _another parent_ might want to do it more often. > > How about you read and keep up. Since you still haven’t addressed anything I said, I’ll just call you an idiot backpedaling and call it a night. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396/120 "2013-08-30T07:37:19Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > I would, except the lanyards at Camp Awesome are made by kids, so they’ll fall apart after a week. The lanyards at Camp Helicopter are made by parents, with the kids simply taking credit for the work, so they’ll actually be well made. I laughed much too long at this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-my-obsessive-parent-neighbor/667396.md?page=7)