Lakewood schools and yeshivas don't care.

amother

Canary

Thu, Jan 27 2022, 8:06 pm

amother [ Floralwhite ] wrote:

I always say 1\2 a day is worse then none

Thank you Hashem that I send to a boys school that gives off on Monday instead of a 1\2 day Thursday

And thank you hashem that my son has no vacation at all. He’s in one of the schools “with Hebrew letters on the bus” lol.
But they do have one route that they just could not get a driver for. So those people have to drive their kids in the morning, and pick them up on days that the whole school gets out at the same time. The rest of the days it’s vans home for the different dismissal times which they do have drivers for.

amother

RosePink

Thu, Jan 27 2022, 8:10 pm

amother [ Cerulean ] wrote:

And the drivers are chasidish. Many fathers drive busses. My achool is trying to arrange similar so far out of hundreds of fathers, three have volunteered. Would your husband drive a bus? If so he can help the problem. He probably can’t. My husband also can’t. Hence the problem.

In general, CHassidish men are more comfortable doing "Demeaning, blue-collar" jobs than Yeshivish/Litvish men.

amother

Cerulean

Thu, Jan 27 2022, 8:15 pm

amother [ Blue ] wrote:

Bussing shouldn't be a given. People across the country have to figure out carpools for their kids. I work full time and schools dont provide bussing at all where I live. Not in lakewood area at all. So when they have early dismissal or late start or randomly this year they decided to start later every day... I have to figure it out. It's part of being a parent and sending to frum schools.
What would you do if there was never bussing? The government can always cut funding for it...
Try to come up with a plan. Find a few parents to carpool with. Come up with rules that unless there is a specific emergency that cant just not show up. Instead of doing a week at a time, many people find having a specific day of the week to do a lot easier. And it is easier for 2 parents to swap if someone is sick, has an appointment etc.

Lakewood is not designed to have 40,000 parents driving on the road at the same time twice a day. It just isn’t. When it does happen, the entire town is gridlocked. The schools do not even have a place for you to go to pick up your kids in many cAses (no place for a line of more than a handful of cars). Because there are over 100 schools in Lakewood (yep! That’s not counting daycares and playgroups), they’re scattered all around town and the residential streets are totally blocked up with hundreds of minivans lined up all throughout town. People carpool but it only helps so much. For me personally I have my other kids in the car and can’t fit others for carpool. I grew up with my mother having to drive me to school, I wasn’t in the New York area I get it. But you would never tell kids in Williamsburg to just carpool. It wouldn’t work. Just because it works in Cleveland and Baltimore, every community is different. And that’s beside the fact that Williamsburg has bussing despite the fact that virtually everyone could walk.

amother

Cerulean

Thu, Jan 27 2022, 8:16 pm

amother [ Cerulean ] wrote:

Oh , and because there are over 100 schools there’s a real chance that there will be nobody in your neighborhood at your child’s school.

amother

Floralwhite

Thu, Jan 27 2022, 10:02 pm

amother [ Canary ] wrote:

And thank you hashem that my son has no vacation at all.

Unlike you I think it is good that my boys have vacation, I think that boys can also use a break

Yeah I know that makes me a weirdo in this town.

I am also happy that there is no English on Sunday and they come home at about 2:00, yes it could be hard sometimes but I think it is better for my boys to get some off time.

amother

Snowflake

Fri, Jan 28 2022, 12:17 am

Sewsew_mom wrote:

My suggestion pick him up earlier. No traffic than. The schools try to get original with scare tactics so parents don't take their kids away on vacation. It's always inconvenient. I'll be a minority but I either wouldn't send or I would pick up even earlier. They can't make everything inconvenient for me. Throw tomatoes but I'm happy and so are my kids

Then why the h*ck do they give mid winter vacation??? This annoys me to no end. They're giving the kids off only to have them sit in the house, or stuck with a babysitter? If they want to give the kids off, then do so without micromanaging how the parents spend that time with their kids.

amother

Snowflake

Fri, Jan 28 2022, 12:23 am

amother [ Broom ] wrote:

I disagree they they don’t care. They are fighting the bus issue tooth and nail. Many schools are gong to start providing their own buses and they are fighting the townships hard. I get it’s frustrating but it’s not ok to accuse them of not caring when it’s not true.

Oh, they don't care. They really really don't care. They're fighting tooth and nail probably because it would make things easier for them. If they'd care about the parents, they would do things so much differently. They would take in consideration that the majority of parents work nowadays. They wouldn't do early dismissals at the drop of a hat, or have so many days off. They'd also try to coordinate scheduling and vacations, so that every school gives off around the same time, and wouldn't schedule kids performance at midday.

As long as we are desperate for schools, they will continue to snub their noses at us and step all over us and pretend that our homes and environments are set up like the 1980s.

amother

Floralwhite

Fri, Jan 28 2022, 1:06 am

amother [ Snowflake ] wrote:

Are you talking about girls schools or boys schools?

I find that all the schools give off at the same weeks, If you look at the calendar you will see that most of the days off are on Yom Tov. They don't give off at the drop of the hat.

I do agree with you that 1\2 days are worse then not having schools all day. But, they don't give them off at the drop of the hat they are on the calendar that you get in the beginning of the year.

amother

Oldlace

Fri, Jan 28 2022, 1:10 am

amother [ Floralwhite ] wrote:

I’m thrilled sundays end at 2
I’m sad they only have English 4 days a week and do little of it.

Winter break is hard for working parents not in chinuch
Your avg professional has 2 - 3 weeks vacation which is barely enough for yom tov.
I love my kids dearly. I’ll work from home while they paint, and have play dates.
I’m not saving my day for vacation. I’m saving it for pesach, rosh hashana, etc

Not worrying about taking off makes you sound really privileged…. It would be nice if you would think of others that don’t have it as easy.

bnm

Fri, Jan 28 2022, 1:06 pm

This is a tough situation. I would have tried to arrange a playdate for the boys maybe. The mother who can't keep up with carpool demands- if she isn't subbing on other days should be told she has to shape up or ship out.

For those that talk about bussing not being a right- some places are just not designed for carpool. Every time my Brooklyn car service drivers would curse about the busses I asked them if they preferred all these people carpool and they got very quiet.

amother

Floralwhite

Sat, Jan 29 2022, 10:06 pm

amother [ Oldlace ] wrote:

Not worrying about taking off makes you sound really privileged…. It would be nice if you would think of others that don’t have it as easy.

It's not privilege it's choice. For many years I would bring my kids to work-yes I was privilege to be able to- I still felt that mid-winter was important for my kids, many of them had a hard time in school and needed that break.

Many be it would be nice to think of those kids who don't have it so easy.

Yes you can do mental health brakes, but the think about mid-winter is it's on the calendar so the kids can wait for it. It is also easier to find childcare on days that everyone has off then just random days.

Even when I went to work I found mid-winter to be a brake for me. Every one has there own chesboin, if you feel that I should think about you then it goes both ways.

amother

Stone

Tue, Feb 01 2022, 12:51 am

I moved from Brooklyn a few years ago and still scratch my head trying to understand why so many things yeshivos/schools do don't seem to take in mind parents. In Brooklyn Noone would show up if you had erratic schedule one day! Here Noone seems to complain?? Idk, still trying to understand this one... it's not just bussing it's overall attitude towards inconveniencing parents...I don't think it comes from a bad place chasvishalom. Maybe 50 years ago when schools in lkwd were all near the homes it didn't matter and it kinda stuck? That's all I came up w...

amother

Oldlace

Tue, Feb 01 2022, 7:50 am

amother [ Floralwhite ] wrote:

For a kid to sit in their parents office all day while the parent works or be stuck in a strangers daycare is not for the child’s best interest.

amother

Ruby

Tue, Feb 01 2022, 8:09 am

It's so annoying. I'm finally done with the younger ones' vacation which I took off work for. Now I have to worry about my HS girls upcoming days off. Yeah I know they're old enough to do things on their own. But how are they getting around if they don't drive? And it was so distracting while they were studying for tests when they had to decide if they had time to come with us bowling or other trips.

amother

Clematis

Tue, Feb 01 2022, 8:21 am

amother [ Snowflake ] wrote:

Exactly! Just cancel the midwinter break altogether.
Or offer “midwinter camp” at school. Instead of learning they can do sports, trips , activities for a few days.

amother

Grape

Tue, Feb 01 2022, 9:11 am

amother [ Oldlace ] wrote:

For a kid to sit in their parents office all day while the parent works or be stuck in a strangers daycare is not for the child’s best interest.

When I was a kid I always went to my mothers office on vacation days. There were sometimes other kids there. We kept busy coloring and watching her work. I didn’t know any different and was very happy actually. Was I deprived? Should I blame my adult issues on that? Confused