Tales of a Crossing Guard

Recently the job of crossing guard became available at my children's school. I've heard it once said that being a crossing guard is like getting paid to take your children to and from school. Yes, you saw that right. I'm getting bank for this! Of course we get all of the school holidays and breaks and it's not even two hours out of the day. SWEET! 

Yes, there is a down side. The bad weather days. I have a rockin new rain coat, courtesy of the city in which I live and baseball caps are my friends. My ears will stay warm thanks to the cute little ear mitts that I recently purchased. Another down side would be the offensively bright yellow/green reflective vest that clashes with my hair color and skin tone. That color should be illegal. 

I had my training session yesterday afternoon. It was alright.  I listened and observed my trainer. I was petrified. I kept thinking of the worst scenario that could happen. Like a kid darting back out into traffic. Or, an driver that thinks he/she doesn't have to obey the traffic laws. There's really only a small ten minute window that's a little crazy. For the other 20 minutes it's really boring. My trainer kept making it clear that a police detective lives in the house across the street from the school and he's called several times about kids being in his yard. Dude, why did you buy a house right across the street from a school? I'm supposed to get the kids safely across the street. If they happen to accidentally step into his yard, it's really not my problem. 

We headed out for my first morning of crossing guard duty while it was still dark outside. It was so quiet. As if everyone was still asleep.  I've never made it a point to get up early enough to see the sun come up, but that was a nice surprise this morning. Slowly it came over the houses and trees and the dark was no more. It was glorious. 

Most of the morning it went off without a hitch. It's really a very quiet neighborhood. Not a lot of traffic. The kids were nice. The moms were nice, until I met one. She had walked her kid to school and she was walking back home and said, "Good job, for the most part". Excuse me? I said it was my first day, and that I thought I was doing relatively well. I'm not sure if she thought I should have rolled out a red carpet just for her. But dream on lady. 

There were a few drivers who thought they didn't have to stop as I was walking into the middle of the intersection. I'm thinking if you don't want to get stopped by a crossing guard, find another way in and out of the neighborhood. There are plenty of them. After the first one, I let some words fly. I was pretty sure they couldn't hear me, but they could see my mouth moving and the expression on my face was not a nice one. Don't worry, there were no children around to hear my words. 

Here's to good weather, cold weather, rain and sun. Here's to making bank just for taking my kids to and from school.