GO AROUND - A hurried - should I say rude- soccer mom to another soccer mom

After dropping off my kids at soccer practice at Mary S. Young Park yesterday in West Linn, I drive to the end of the park to turn around, and come to this long drive along the many soccer fields where several signs clearly warn, “No Parking,” and for good reason -- if you do park there you block other drivers from finding their way through the park.
Common courtesy, right?
But this lady in her running, air conditioned Lexus SUV is stopping in front of me to wait for her child, who is nowhere to be seen and another car going the opppostie direction is also waiting there, and so I am stuck. Wanting to leave the park, but I cannot.
My son Ryan is actually driving trying to get his hours on his lerner’s permit and he waits there, and even sees the lady look in her rear view mirror to see us waiting, but she still does not move forward so we can move past the soccer fields. I look to see if her child might be coming from one of the soccer fields but there is no child around, so we do a brief honk, thinking perhaps she does not see us behind her.
She sees us all right.
But instead of apologetically moving her car on, she rolls down her window and snaps, “Go around.”
Okay, now I am thinking, does she want us to drive on the soccer field to go around? We cannot move in the very narrow drive by the fields -- the other car waiting in the No Parking zone is blocking the option to “just go around.” We just want to leave the park in peace I say to my son.
It is one thing to quickly drop off your child without getting out to walk him or her to soccer practice, but to wait there for pick up in a narrow drive clearly marked No Parking is quite another thing, especially if there is a car behind you trying to get around and your child is nowhere near being finished with practice.
I figured that once she saw us behind her she would pull forward into the parking lot and, gasp, walk to pick up her child, but no, instead we get yelled at. I was not happy and was thinking, I confess, some very un-Christ-like thoughts at that moment.
Finally, the car from the other direction was kind enough to pull forward so we could “go around” and leave the park while the Lexus SUV mom driver snarled at us again.
Have we gotten so busy in our lives that not only do we serve dinner at drive-through windows but we do pick up of our kids in a drive-through manner?
I remember being at a school function a while back and a lady pulls up and honks her car as her child waited in the foyer of the school.
I know we are busy and have babies in the car and have a million things to do and it is inconvenient and and and, but maybe we should try getting out and walking into the school or church or, I hate to say it, get our children a cell phone and call when we get to the event if we do not have the time to pick up in person.
But frankly, the walk will do us some good as well as actually give us the chance to connect with live people, other parents, picking up at events.
If nothing else, think about the message we are sending to our children. By picking them up in person, not just via a drive by or through method, we are communicating to our kids that they are worth it.

By Cornelia Seigneur
www.writermom.net
myspace.com/corneliaseigneur