How Not to Behave When You Drop Kids Off at School in Lubbock

I found this story from a Lubbock mom and I just had to share it.

I've become more and more patient with most drivers. I still don't believe that anyone gets up with the intention of ruining your day. The drivers have their own things going on and things happen. The people who need to be judged are actually the people who react poorly to these situations. These would be the people with "road rage," whether it's on the road, in a parking lot, or, in this case, a school drop-off zone.

Take a moment and think about the times you let yourself get mad at other drivers, then consider the following story:

To the man who laid down on his horn multiple times and then flipped me off in the drop off lane at school this morning, I’m sure we haven’t met before, so let me introduce myself. Hi, My name is Jess and I‘m the mother of a 15 year old special needs child named Ryan. Ryan’s been having a hard time adjusting to high school this year and it all came out this morning when it came time for him to get out of the car in the drop off line. He was in tears and I was just trying to love him through it and refocus him. I’m sorry that it took an extra minute for you to realize we weren’t moving. I was loving my child who was struggling at the moment. Apparently, it was such an inconvenience to you to turn your steering wheel and pull around me, so you decided to honk your horn multiple times. When I looked in my mirror, I saw you screaming at me and flipping me off. My son saw it too, so what progress we did make, was completely shattered when he saw you losing your shit.
What could have been possibly been going on this morning that would cause you to react in such a hateful manner? I’m positive it wasn’t just that we didn’t move quickly enough for your liking. I’m positive I saw your child get out of your vehicle laughing and happy. I’m positive that you didn’t stop to think for one second that maybe something was going on that wasn’t about you. I’m positive had my child not been in the car, you and I would have had this conversation face to face. I’m positive you embarrassed your own child with your ridiculous behavior.
I hope your day gets better even though you couldn’t care less about my son’s day, thats for sure. I hope that you find some sort of kindness in your heart and stop being so selfish and encapsulated in your own world. I hope you never have to feel the way you made me and my son feel this morning all because you couldn’t just go around me. My heart is broken for my son today. If you’ve made it this far, please do me a favor. Choose kindness next time. It takes nothing from you to be kind, but it took everything from my son to watch you do the opposite.

I hope everybody will really soak this story in and take the author's advice and choose kindness next time. That other driver could be dealing with something much bigger than whatever petty little grievance you have. It's also not the other driver's fault that you're running late or in a hurry.

Just chill and deal with your own anger.