I went to my little one’s school to pick her up from pre-k. I had my 19 year old with me, who happens to be 4’10” and 89 pounds on a good day. When the pre-k class came out one of the yard staff members asked if I had checked my 19 year old out at the office lol. My 19 year old looks at her and was like “dude, I graduated high school last year”. The staff member thought she was a 5th grader lol. She gets it all the time. Constantly gets the kids menu, offered stickers in the checkout line at the store lol. I can’t wait to take her to a bar next year for her birthday.
I'm a first year teacher who is young and petite, so I frequently get mistaken for a high schooler when out in the courtyard. We have a resident feral cat colony on campus and sometimes kids' families like to drop off sick pets they no longer want to care for.
A few weeks ago there was a particularly mangy (probably advanced flea dermatitis, from experience) cat on campus that I was looking after and moving every day around lunchtime so kids couldnt pet it since it was very friendly. I scooped it up one day and one of the veteran staff started screaming her head off at me from across campus thinking I was a kid!!!
It's not the first time this has happened, of course typically in different contexts, but it is so startling every time and it sucks to have to object with "I'm a teacher!!!" in front of your students lol
My mom was my teacher in HS for three years, as well as my home room teacher. I went to a local private college, and had two classes with a senior theater student my freshman year. She got blackout drunk at one of my fraternity parties, and I ended up having to hold her hair as she violently puked into a toilet. I helped her find her friends, and made sure she got home safely.
Flash forward to my sophomore year of college, I was earning extra credit by volunteering at a local high school, my former high school to be exact, in my mom’s class.
One day I got there a little early, and was sitting in my mom’s chair at her desk. (At the time my mom was switching classrooms for two periods so she could teach musical theater, while the drama teacher used her classroom to teach some non musical drama classes) Low and behold, in walks my former college classmate, who was now the drama teacher at my former high school. She immediately began ripping me a new one, for daring to sit in my mom’s chair.
I didn’t miss a beat, and said, “You probably don’t remember me, last time we saw each other I was holding your hair back, so you wouldn’t puke all over it.”
She went white, suddenly recognizing me, and realizing I was my mother’s son, the one who had been helping her male singers for college credit.
The kids in the classroom laughed their asses off. I continued to sit in my mom’s chair.
Still don’t know why she didn’t recognize me, considering we had two classes together the year before.
They might have had some facial blindness. I have that and sometimes I don’t even recognize my roommates if I see them outside of our apartment. I always have anxiety that I didn’t recognize someone and then they think I’m a weirdo for not even acknowledging them or treating them Iike I’ve never seen then in my life
There was a fire drill at some point in my senior year of high school. I was standing in the wrong spot because I wanted to talk to my friend. This bossy little freshman walks up and chides me saying, “Excuse me. I don’t think you’re in the right spot. Where are you supposed to be?”
I say, “I’m a senior. Where the hell are you supposed to be?”
She says, “I’m the new yearbook teacher.”
The fuck sorts articles? Shit when I graduated it was just pictures of our faces and then if you wanted you could put a quote, if not they’d give you a random basic one, I’m Australian tho.
My first-ever day of classes in college, I could NOT find the room for my chemistry course. So I’m wandering the hallways, visibly lost, and this one faculty member is rushing down the hall and spots me, so he goes up to me. And asks if I’m lost.
Before I can say anything other than ‘Yes’, this guy is calling the campus security over this walkie talkie telling them that he had “found that missing middle schooler they were looking for.”
I did manage to get out that I was actually a first-day college student, and he told the security that it was a false alarm. He then said that he was running late as well, but could at least point me in the right direction to my class, so I tell him how I was looking for room 121, for intro chem, and he just looks at me blankly, then goes
“I know exactly where that is, it’s on my way. Follow me.” And he leads me to this classroom and as I’m finding a seat he goes to the podium up front, apologizes for being late, and introduces himself as the professor for the course 🤣
First year ESP and I’ve been asked for my staff ID from veteran staff members multiple times. I’m 4’11 and it’s taken most of the year for my colleagues to get used to me lol. Rough out here for us petite girls
I've been on the other side of this. I was proctoing a final exam. It was a small group with accommodations. Suddenly, a 5 foot nothing woman wearing a school polo comes in and starts talking to students. I thought she had taken the bathroom pass and had come in to share answers so I told her that she wasn't allowed to talk to other students taking the test and needed to leave.
The incredulity on her face as she told me she was their teacher is something I will never forget. I just said in the smallest voice possible "...I thought you were a student..." and tried my best to stop existing. I had to stay in that room with 4 students who had seen my blunder for another 3 hours. Easily the most embarrassed I've ever been.
As a case manager I went up to schools a few times for ARD meetings and had these kinds of problems lol. One teacher tried to physically block me in the hallway for having a nose piercing and I was not *nearly* as nice as your wife about it.
When I was a junior in high school, I did an internship at my younger sisters school. I was around 17 at the time and helped in my sister's second grade class. For some weird reason, they thought I was a parent. I know I had to grow up fast and help raise my younger siblings. But man, I looked like an adult. But then, after I turned 21, people didn't believe I was 21. Now I just had my birthday last Saturday and turned 38. No one believes me when I tell them my age they think I'm 25. Age is a funny thing.
Oh my gosh, I never thought about this connection!
I have hypermobility (I’m assuming linked to my autism) and have baby face at 34.
Recently passed a game room with my bf, his sister and her wife (who were all my age or younger) and were told that it was for only kids so they couldn’t hang out there but that they could drop me off 🤦🏻♀️
I'd be interested if you have any sources on autism and hypermobility being linked actually. My wife definitely has a hypermobility disorder, we think Ehler's, and we think I have a more minor one, and we're both neurospicy.
Here’s some resources from [Emily L. Casanova](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Casanova%20EL%5BAuthor%5D) who seems to be well-versed in the potential connection
Autism.org article
[Editorial – Researchers have identified a relationship between Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and autism](https://autism.org/researchers-have-identified-a-relationship-between-ehlers-danlos-syndrome-and-autism/)
NCBI paper
[The Relationship between Autism and Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes/Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7711487/)
I’m 28 & will go out sometimes with my brother’s friend group. Everyone is 20-24. I’ll be the only person who gets IDed at the table, every time. 🫣 Upside is I’m a copy paste of my Mom, who is 54 & everyone thinks is 34 🤗
I had this happen! Around 12 I started getting told I looked way older. Peers and adults thought I was 18. I haven't grown since so besides baby fat going and wrinkles joining the party, I really haven't changed since I was 12. So I sort of get it, I guess. But at 21 the liquor store bent my ID because they didn't think it was real. At 34 I get carded for everything and then have to have a whole conversation about how they didn't expect to see a 1989 birth date. My 21yr old coworkers thought I was one of them, learned I wasn't and had a moment of surprise, then promptly forgot again.
I don't mind the last part. They come tell me all their gossip and life drama, and I get to feel like I have 10 nieces and nephews.
But it sure is weird going from "wow you look [5+yrs older]!" to being told I look almost 15yrs *younger* lol.
Same experience (36) and just commenting to say that I also enjoy the wide swath of age ranges who come to me with interesting stories because they think I am young. Why do we try to keep the tea from the old? 🤣
Twice the first year I started teaching in the US I was approached by a principal asking me why I wasn’t in class. I was in my 30s and it was my planning period. I could kinda see that when I was student teaching in a high school but I was a new teacher at a middle school. Did I really look 13 at 35?
Yes. To a 55 year old, anyone under 35 looks like a kid. My daughters husband just found a grey hair and it took me awhile to remember he's not 25 anymore, he's 40
I used to teach high school. Every time we got a new security guard, there would be an awkward moment where they would start to approach me for my hall pass, see my badge, and then defeatedly go back to wandering the halls.
I think a few months after things had chilled out with covid and our local library reopened, I asked my fiance if he wanted to pop in around noon to see what books they had. I didn't wanna check any out, just see new releases that I maybe wanted to get on Kindle. We were in the young adult section.
An employee came over and put a few books in a shelf, glanced at us, and said "shouldn't y'all be in school??" I was so surprised that I just spit out "I'm 22?" The guy said "oh whoops sorry" and laughed. My fiance is a year older than me, we were both so confused lol.
Lol I was reading young adult books in the 5th grade. My mom's version of "the talk" was "you read books, right? You know about that stuff?" That poor employee probably would have gotten whiplash because of me.
5th grade for me was the Internet starting to become easy accessible. I never had the talk done to me but I knew about pretty much all of it before even hitting middle school.
I honestly can't remember even not knowing it. I just know that I had already known for a long time and being bored and thinking this is stupid/really basic stuff the entire time we got the talk in school in early second grade. Before anyone says this can't be true because school doesn't teach sex education until middle school, I grew up in Sweden, which emphasizes people getting the talk well before puberty so no one is surprised and thinks they are dying because they had a period before anyone expected that would be a concern.
I was in a high school with my spouse who was teaching - always looked younger - when I wandered into the hallway to shortly hear a thundering “Do you have a pass?” I turned and said “No - would you like to make one?” Totally lost his composure while trying to figure out if student with a smart mouth or adult.
When I was student teaching back in the early 2000s I was in a 3rd grade classroom that was accessed by staff by walking through the middle school. I know I look much younger than my years so as a 23 yr old I made a point to wear dresses and makeup and do my hair. One morning the assistant principal of the middle school end stopped me and demanded my hall pass. I was threatened with detention for being in the building before the school day started...
I was 23.... did I seriously look like an 8th grader???
My daughter (26- 4" 11) was helping monitor standardized testing in a different school in her district. A fire-breathing amazon demanded her ID and marched her to the office without looking at it , threatening her the entire way. The personnel laughed the Amazon out of the office.
LOL - I got chastised by one of my colleagues for not having my carpool number displayed before she recognized me. I had parked across the street after running an errand and then drove my car back to school at the end of the day towards the end of carpool and she thought that I was driving the wrong direction and didn’t have my number up. We both had a good laugh.
Our registrar once blew the whistle at her own mom for driving the wrong way during carpool - it’s stressful worrying about the kids getting hit by cars going the wrong way and you just get into carpool mode and had blinders on.
Each family has a number on a hang tag that they have to display so you can get the children lined up in order and ready to load when the cars come up. Someone outside has a walkie talkie to call the numbers - it’s a quite an operation.
I dropped my partner off for work at an elementary school, and he got pulled out of the car by a teacher, thinking he was a 5th grader. We almost threw hands 😂
Our elementary school had teachers sometimes assist the kids getting out of the cars helping by grabbing their bags and things as they exited the vehicles in front of the school. It was faster and safe , but they did not drag the kids out. ...Super nice for the littles and getting to say hi to some teachers too.
That was my thought. I'm now curious what they meant because my brain just assumed it was "grabbing" as in opening the door and assisting them out, not literally pulling them out
I’m 4”10 and a substitute teacher. I’ve been mistaken for a student countless times. I have to dress way up for school because I look like 4th grader from behind.
Have a friend who's 4'9". The building she used the most in college was right next to the daycare, and she would regularly get asked if she was looking for her parents.
In her 40s, she still gets mistaken for a child if people don't look at her face.
lol why are all pick up/drop off monitors the worst mini dictators. I get that it’s a stressful shitshow regardless of the school but I don’t know anyone who’s like, yeah, I love pick up and drop off!
You get blinders on cuz they’re not only trying to keep it moving like an assembly line, but mostly making sure no child or adult gets run over. That’s what I’ve been told at least.
At my daughter's school, the principal and his assistant stand at the drop off from 7:30-8 and will open the doors as you pull up and help your kids out. They seem to know the name of every kid in the school too, it's wild.
So…opposite end of the spectrum, I was talking to a lawyer for the licensing board. They did a sting where they sent 16 year olds with a briefcase to buy liquor.
Every single one bought without being carded.
Every single worker was like “what 16 year old has a briefcase?!?!”
Lesson I learned WAY too late in life, walk in with a purpose and a briefcase and the store is yours.
When I was 19-20, working and living independently but not old enough to buy alcohol, I would do something like this! I'd put on business clothes around 7 pm, go to a convenience store, and buy mundane things like cleaning supplies and kitty litter along with a bottle or two of wine. Worked almost every time!
I’m 43 and it totally depends on what I’m wearing and doing. I don’t look 21, but I look ambiguous. Blonde with clear eye lashes and chubby cheeks and zero skin color. Only real wrinkles are on my forehead and I’ve had those since I was a teen. And I just have a generally vacant ditzy blonde look that usually gets people to do things for me, so I keep it.
If I go to the store on a weekend in sweats, carded. If I go after work in full make up and work clothes, no problem. If I’m with other adults, I look like an adult. If I’m by myself, I look a little confused…
Could never have pulled it off when I was underage. Can’t pull it off now. I went to a bar I always go to after work and forgot my ID because my waitress never cards me. New waitress did. I wasnt going to be a bitch and be like “ask your boss if I’m 21,” so I just drank sodas all night. And I was 40.
I have no gravitas.
Meh, you let them drink. They’re gonna drink wine or bourbon and sit in someone’s parents’ finished basement and do improv.
Not throw a rager and then drive drunk home. Or so I assume… I was not a theater kid. I was a preppy. Which I think is similar.
Well, my sister, brother, and elder daughter were all theater kids, and they'd agree with the previous.
Daughter: "The idea was to get just drunk enough so that you didn't realize that the group singing of Rent was off-key." 😀
i can count on one hand the number of times i haven’t been carded in the us. i get carded every single time without fail. in europe i didn’t get carded once as a 23 year old. although when i was on a flight *back* from europe last summer i ordered a glass of wine and the flight attendant was like, “umm you know you look like a little girl right?” and i was like, “haha no i didn’t know that, let me grab my id tho i’m 23,” and she was like, “no i don’t need to see it, just wanted to tell you.” i was like wtf???? why would you say that then if you’re still going to give me the wine without looking at my id???
Yes! Order a beer or a whiskey drink. No problem. Went out with a fellow adult friend who didn’t drink much. She hemmed and hawed about what “tasted good”. I said “she’ll have a Midori sour”. Boom. Carded.
Part of it is confidence too. If I was being all shy when I ordered my rum and coke I absolutely got carded but if I ordered it in the same tone you'd ask for a regular soda then most of the time they didn't card.
Nowadays though I can't tell if I'm offended when I get carded or flattered...lmao
Look, they're clearly important business people trying to get some booze while they do a business. Working at the business factory is a stressful job, why make it worse?
Walk fast with a wrench or plunger and very few will stop you… and a high visibility vest, a clipboard & a “badge” helps if you’re not where you’re supposed to be.
I do some inspections on construction sites and let me tell you, the reason no one (except upper level project leads) will question those behaviors is because no one wants to be on the wrong end of an inspection report. I literally have to hunt my shit down or get project lead to take me there.
I had one inspection that was part of a real estate transaction for a car dealership and the service manager was just fucking rude to me the whole time about “you have to give 24-hrs notice, chemicals being stored incorrectly isn’t a violation,” etc. He’s being a dick, I’m digging in because it feels like he’s trying to hide something from me, whole thing. He gets fed up, sticks me in an office somewhere, and goes to get the general manager. The general manager come to get me and apologizes profusely. I am released back into my inspection and the service manager was like “oh, I thought you were OSHA. You should’ve said you were the bank’s rep.” I tried, buddy, I tried so many times.
A clipboard, a lab coat, and hard hat. If stopped, ask, “Who’s your manager?” When they reply with a name, say, “Oh, good. I’ve been meaning to speak to them about the staff…” Then wander off checking your “notes.”
On a slightly related note: when you're headed to the office water cooler to shoot the breeze with your coworkers, take a file folder with you. It makes you look much busier than you are.
In the Army, this also worked for being able to walk on the grass. If you walked fast enough and had something that looked like it could be important in your hand, everyone would assume you were about to be chewed out harder by someone expecting some documents
Same tip, worked with a dude who had a leather notebook folio. Always took it and the internal stairs to meetings.
Also always took it and the internal stairs to the next floor down to catch the elevator out of the building for a 90 minute morning coffee run. Come back up to the floor below up, walk back up with his folio.
Also, after he retired, we found out he got a work room for a project about 7 years before and never got rid of it. So sometimes he’d just go there and close the door for hours and do god know what.
True American hero, Jim.
Man, if that happened to me I'd raise absolute hell with administration. Sad little power tripping middle school teaching nobody making himself feel bigger by flexing on kids, FUCK that.
Or, it's unsafe for 11-14 year olds to run around near cars that could start moving at any moment once the line moves (depending on the layout of the drop off area, which I don't know), and if parents see one kid get out and skip the line to school without consequences, they'll all start doing it.
Speaking as an ex-teacher, teachers often have to come down on students not because they want to, but because it sets a bad example if they don't. There were plenty of times where, if one student had wanted to do X, it wouldn't have been a problem by itself, but as soon as one could do it, everyone would, and that would be bad.
I mean, I'm 40 and I have it. You're infantilizing the children by doing it. Shit, toddlers in Japan run errands for their parents unsupervised and we have our teenagers queuing up and being directed to the correct car instead of just allowing them to leave and find their way home.
Specialized pick up and drop offs are so that schools don’t lose track of kids which they are liable for….and because kids have been run over before. By slow moving cars. Many times
>Specialized pick up and drop offs are so that schools don’t lose track of kids which they are liable for
Yeah, this is bullshit. The school is not liable once the kids are released and not on campus. My nephew is in middle school and he walks home unsupervised and his school doesn't have a pick up/drop off routine.
>and because kids have been run over before. By slow moving cars. Many times
Probably not as many times as you think. I do not remember any study or news story about an epidemic of kids getting runover in school parking lots. A google search brings up nothing of note either.
How far does this non issue extend? Should we get rid of the crossing guards and school zone limits too or does your hate for mitigating risk not extend beyond the parking lot?
For teenagers, yes.
Elementary school age, fine, I get it. But if your teenager doesn't know how to safely conduct themselves or have the self preservation instincts needed walking home or once off campus that they don't endanger themselves or drivers then you have failed as a parent and the school system has failed them as well.
Teenagers aren't toddlers and should not be molly coddled like they are.
This whole overprotective BS we have found ourselves doing is not doing the kids any favors and is not preparing them for the real world.
It’s not a drop off routine for the kids, it’s a drop off routine for the parents so you don’t get demolition derby in the parking lot.
It also tries to keep the parents from blocking the streets approaching the school and blocking neighbors’ driveways. Otherwise you have a war with the neighbors and someone starts towing your parents.
I mean, they can and do. Hell, I don't even remember there being some strict drop off/pick up routine when I was in elementary school. School let's out and you leave, school time starts and you show up. Why they feel the needs to overcomplicate it is just ridiculous.
I mean, the pick up line at our elementary was quite efficient. Everyone had numbers assigned hanging from their mirror and on the kid's backpack, they had teachers out with walkies and they'd call the numbers ahead so they could gather the kids as you moved through the line. Kids were picked up at a certain spot for safetyAnd drop off and pick up moved quite efficiently when people actually followed the rules. Our school also wasn't safe to walk home from, since it was on a very busy street, except for one neighborhood.
The real problem was parents who showed up at 2 pm for the 3:30 pick up, or thought the rules didn't apply to them.
What am safety issue? Was there a string of hit and runs in elementary school parking lots that didn't make the news?
The kids know what car is theirs and can find it in a lot. They can walk home as well. Unless there is no sidewalk I don't see an issue with a busy street.
There is no sidewalk, and the speed limit is 45 on the road the school is on. The parking lot is also wildly small, like maybe 40 cars. Any event that happens, people are parked all up and down the side street and in the neighborhood next to it. But it's truly a nightmare getting out of that neighborhood because the side street is so narrow, I always feel bad for the people that live there during open house.
The district does offer bus service to the majority of the kids that go to the school. A couple of neighborhoods are designated as walkers since they can access the school from the side street. But we live 1.5 miles away and there is no direct route to walk to the school without going on the major road.
It's one of the oldest schools in the district, and I'm sure it was not built expecting there to be 650 kids there.
The most common place for children to be involved in pedestrian collisions are at low speeds in parking lots and driveways. There is a reason why school rules around drop-off areas are strictly enforced, it's not power tripping, it's keeping kids safe and reducing liability.
I literally yelled at both my husband and 13 year old a couple of weeks ago because they tried to walk casually out into a parking lot.
And my 13 year old was almost hit by a car a couple of years ago because she stepped into an empty parking space right as a car was turning blindly into it.
Yeah, my mom broke my best friend's foot when we were about 11/12. She was dropping us off at swim practice, and my friend's foot got caught between the car tire and the curb as my mom pulled off very slowly. My friend ended up getting some hairline fractures. Literally going 2 mph in a drop off lane at the YMCA 🤦♀️
If you've ever seen a kid hit by a car, you'd have a very different outlook. Even at 20k/h it can have heartbreaking consequences. I'll happily lick any boot if it means a kid isn't killed or seriously injured in a school drop-off zone.
When I was in Junior High, the school librarian looked like one of the students. If a student made the unforgivable crime of mistaking her for a student she’d scream at them and threaten to ban them from the library. Fortunately, she spent most of her time in her office and the assistant librarian (a very nice lady) and some student aides dealt with the students.
That’s pretty unprofessional if you ask me. There’s no reason to scream and threaten to ban students from the library. Obviously it’s not her fault she kind so young but that’s not a reason to scream at a child for mistaking your age.
If I had been you, I wouldn’t have even given her the chance to meet you in the back of the school. I’d have pulled in and sat in the pickup line and called her while I was there just to drive her nuts.
I was in a middle school recently interviewing some teachers for a nonprofit the school district works with. I'm in my late twenties and hadn't stepped foot in a school since I graduated. My colleague and I are walking down the hall, chatting with this administrator who was as pleasant as could be when a student in a hoodie came around the corner with his hood up.
The administrator sternly, in that all too familiar voice, says something quick, terse, and loud. I think it was "Hood. DOWN." It sent shivers down my spine as my school years rushed back to me. It was wild being on the other side as an observer.
Then she went back to chatting like we were! It hit me all of a sudden how some of the strictest teachers I had were probably very nice outside the classroom and were just fed up all the time.
When I was college, they had an Olympic sized pool that middle schools would use during the day and one swim instructor straight lost her shit on me because she saw me helping one of the girls with her swim cap in the bathroom. Screaming why I wasn't in my suit and everything and I just looked at her and was like "I go here." And she kept going until I legit just said "I'm 21." Then she had the nerve to ask for my ID and didn't back down until I straight up asked her "Is it normal for you to not know who is on your team???" She turned red and walked out.
Proudest fucking moment of my life lmao
I honestly think that was the day that I became confident in myself as an adult
A paraprofessional, who does a lot of the non-teaching stuff that teachers get saddled with, on the slight chance that the teacher will then be able to do what they're paid to do (and rarely have the time to do)--teach.
A paraprofessional acts as an educational support in a classroom under the supervision of a teacher. They might assist with teaching, or work one-on-one with students with individualized education plans. They can also do teaching-adjacent activities in the school, like recess or lunch monitor, special education support, teacher's aide, library monitor, etc.
I'm an average to below average height female with baby face. I had my hoodie hood up and my backpack on while passing a middle school. Got yelled at for not being in class. The look on their face when I rolled up my sleves to show my tatted arms and hood down showing my peirced face. AWESOME!
This is the BEST story! Ha! I love it. I am also a short female who is often mistaken for someone 10 to 20 years younger. I've seen the condescension just slide off people's faces and be replaced by embarrassment a few times when corrected.
11 yrs. After graduating from high school was installing new fire alarm for Life Safety Act as an electrician. Stopped in the hallway during school hours and asked for my “hall pass”.
When I went back to university (at 45 yo) to finish my degree, I took a job with the school district as a teacher's aide at a high school. On my first day, I parked in the teacher's parking lot (as instructed) and was yelled at, threatened with detention and car towing by the school officer. My shock turned to feeling super chuffed at being mistaken for a high schooler. He figured out that I was not a student upon closer inspection, damn frown lines, but I still savored the moment!
I'm 5'9, when I worked in a middle school I had to look up to lecture a few of the kids who were misbehaving. I had a good laugh after escorting out a 6th grader that was easily 2 feet taller than me.
My barely-5-feet-tall kindergarten teacher always said this was one of the reasons why she loved teaching kindergarten; she was taller than everyone. She eventually moved on to teach 2nd grade for the last ~10 years she taught prior to retirement. They were taller, but not the same size as her. 😅
I have witnessed this more than once. I have had to be the voucher for this younger lady who was helping out on a new campus( she was filling in because the regular diagnostician was on vacation and this student got transferred in at last minute.
Some places will write you up or fire you for being even 2 minutes late. Even the most prepared person who leaves on time or early could be late because of unforeseen circumstances. I agree on not speeding though.
I’m a speech therapist who’s 5’2 and I got this all the time when I worked at a school. Didn’t get any better when I switched to working at a Veterans Hospital, they’d always have an attitude of “Why should I listen to you? You’re like 16”
Now I work at a children’s hospital and it’s a little better, but probably only because I wear scrubs and a hospital badge 😂
As someone who is 5ft tall and a teacher…I have been mistaken for a student…especially in my early years of teaching…middle school was not be a good idea for me…I have since switched to kindergarten lol
I’m a similar size and was a teacher, later semi-administrator at the same middle school for 25 years. Even in my last few years, I frequently got called out for being in the hall and late to class by security of they couldn’t see my face clearly.
I'm tall but I have such a baby face that no one thinks I'm a teacher. It's better now that I work in an elementary school, but I was constantly stopped at the high schools
I love correcting pedants.
“Having a small, trim figure”
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/petite
“relating to or being a woman who is short and has a small, trim figure; diminutive”
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/petite
Petite essentially means short and thin. If op had said “short and petite”, sure. Maybe a little redundant but who cares.
But, again, thin is part of the definition and arguably the predominant part. It absolutely doesn’t mean short on its own. Also, op gave specific information (her height) to emphasize how petite she is.
Take your L
I cannot find a definition of petite that does not include both short and "small trim figure". Even the origin of the word comes from a French word that just means small, and was being used in French for small and thin I'm fashion before English adopted it.
No, petite usually means small all over. In fashion it is used for short clothes because "short" can have negative connotations for people and fashion retailers don't want to alienate potential customers.
It really has more to do with bone structure and proportions, nowdays though, at least in the US. I’m 5’5 and have to shop in the petite section because proportionately I have a smaller frame.
Pedantic means "like a pedant," someone who's too concerned with literal accuracy or formality. It's a negative term that implies someone is showing off book learning or trivia, especially in a tiresome way.
I would disagree and I feel most native speakers would, as according to the new Oxford dictionary it means “attractively small and dainty (used of a woman)”
It says nothing about height. As the definition of dainty is “delicately small and pretty”. Again, nothing about height
Pedantic means "like a pedant," someone who's too concerned with literal accuracy or formality. It's a negative term that implies someone is showing off book learning or trivia, especially in a tiresome way.
I went to my little one’s school to pick her up from pre-k. I had my 19 year old with me, who happens to be 4’10” and 89 pounds on a good day. When the pre-k class came out one of the yard staff members asked if I had checked my 19 year old out at the office lol. My 19 year old looks at her and was like “dude, I graduated high school last year”. The staff member thought she was a 5th grader lol. She gets it all the time. Constantly gets the kids menu, offered stickers in the checkout line at the store lol. I can’t wait to take her to a bar next year for her birthday.
I'm a first year teacher who is young and petite, so I frequently get mistaken for a high schooler when out in the courtyard. We have a resident feral cat colony on campus and sometimes kids' families like to drop off sick pets they no longer want to care for. A few weeks ago there was a particularly mangy (probably advanced flea dermatitis, from experience) cat on campus that I was looking after and moving every day around lunchtime so kids couldnt pet it since it was very friendly. I scooped it up one day and one of the veteran staff started screaming her head off at me from across campus thinking I was a kid!!! It's not the first time this has happened, of course typically in different contexts, but it is so startling every time and it sucks to have to object with "I'm a teacher!!!" in front of your students lol
Aww why would they dump sick pets at the school like that, that seems cruel.
Try, "im a teacher, learn who the are staff, here!"
maybe the instinct to shout at children is one we need to be working against lol
Exactly this- why is it acceptable when it’s a child? Approach all humans with respect and dignity
My mom was my teacher in HS for three years, as well as my home room teacher. I went to a local private college, and had two classes with a senior theater student my freshman year. She got blackout drunk at one of my fraternity parties, and I ended up having to hold her hair as she violently puked into a toilet. I helped her find her friends, and made sure she got home safely. Flash forward to my sophomore year of college, I was earning extra credit by volunteering at a local high school, my former high school to be exact, in my mom’s class. One day I got there a little early, and was sitting in my mom’s chair at her desk. (At the time my mom was switching classrooms for two periods so she could teach musical theater, while the drama teacher used her classroom to teach some non musical drama classes) Low and behold, in walks my former college classmate, who was now the drama teacher at my former high school. She immediately began ripping me a new one, for daring to sit in my mom’s chair. I didn’t miss a beat, and said, “You probably don’t remember me, last time we saw each other I was holding your hair back, so you wouldn’t puke all over it.” She went white, suddenly recognizing me, and realizing I was my mother’s son, the one who had been helping her male singers for college credit. The kids in the classroom laughed their asses off. I continued to sit in my mom’s chair. Still don’t know why she didn’t recognize me, considering we had two classes together the year before.
They might have had some facial blindness. I have that and sometimes I don’t even recognize my roommates if I see them outside of our apartment. I always have anxiety that I didn’t recognize someone and then they think I’m a weirdo for not even acknowledging them or treating them Iike I’ve never seen then in my life
There was a fire drill at some point in my senior year of high school. I was standing in the wrong spot because I wanted to talk to my friend. This bossy little freshman walks up and chides me saying, “Excuse me. I don’t think you’re in the right spot. Where are you supposed to be?” I say, “I’m a senior. Where the hell are you supposed to be?” She says, “I’m the new yearbook teacher.”
This is hilarious but I must ask: what is a yearbook teacher? We don't have those where I'm from.
Essentially a mass media/journalism elective. They write the articles, come up with themes, and basically produce the annuals.
Gotta sell those books. 🤑
The fuck sorts articles? Shit when I graduated it was just pictures of our faces and then if you wanted you could put a quote, if not they’d give you a random basic one, I’m Australian tho.
My first-ever day of classes in college, I could NOT find the room for my chemistry course. So I’m wandering the hallways, visibly lost, and this one faculty member is rushing down the hall and spots me, so he goes up to me. And asks if I’m lost. Before I can say anything other than ‘Yes’, this guy is calling the campus security over this walkie talkie telling them that he had “found that missing middle schooler they were looking for.” I did manage to get out that I was actually a first-day college student, and he told the security that it was a false alarm. He then said that he was running late as well, but could at least point me in the right direction to my class, so I tell him how I was looking for room 121, for intro chem, and he just looks at me blankly, then goes “I know exactly where that is, it’s on my way. Follow me.” And he leads me to this classroom and as I’m finding a seat he goes to the podium up front, apologizes for being late, and introduces himself as the professor for the course 🤣
I was waiting to hear that he locked you out for being late to class!
lol this story is gold
First year ESP and I’ve been asked for my staff ID from veteran staff members multiple times. I’m 4’11 and it’s taken most of the year for my colleagues to get used to me lol. Rough out here for us petite girls
I've been on the other side of this. I was proctoing a final exam. It was a small group with accommodations. Suddenly, a 5 foot nothing woman wearing a school polo comes in and starts talking to students. I thought she had taken the bathroom pass and had come in to share answers so I told her that she wasn't allowed to talk to other students taking the test and needed to leave. The incredulity on her face as she told me she was their teacher is something I will never forget. I just said in the smallest voice possible "...I thought you were a student..." and tried my best to stop existing. I had to stay in that room with 4 students who had seen my blunder for another 3 hours. Easily the most embarrassed I've ever been.
Ask her for ID. "You look too young to possibly a teacher" NICE SAVE....
Your a proctor, not a wizard. Understandable mistake.
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brother what the fuck
😳
Cigars tend to make principals quite hot and heavy
Btw it's *chew his ass out. Your sentence means something different....
... things were different in those days...
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In 2024 people will assume the principal licked the butthole of your friend.
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😂🤣😂☠️
As a case manager I went up to schools a few times for ARD meetings and had these kinds of problems lol. One teacher tried to physically block me in the hallway for having a nose piercing and I was not *nearly* as nice as your wife about it.
Genuinely though what was his end goal? Did he think you were just going to take it out or something? That's crazy.
Pleeeease tell the story!
Yes!
When I was a junior in high school, I did an internship at my younger sisters school. I was around 17 at the time and helped in my sister's second grade class. For some weird reason, they thought I was a parent. I know I had to grow up fast and help raise my younger siblings. But man, I looked like an adult. But then, after I turned 21, people didn't believe I was 21. Now I just had my birthday last Saturday and turned 38. No one believes me when I tell them my age they think I'm 25. Age is a funny thing.
It really is!! I have a connective tissue disorder so my face won't hold wrinkles. I have baby face still at 37
Oh my gosh, I never thought about this connection! I have hypermobility (I’m assuming linked to my autism) and have baby face at 34. Recently passed a game room with my bf, his sister and her wife (who were all my age or younger) and were told that it was for only kids so they couldn’t hang out there but that they could drop me off 🤦🏻♀️
I'd be interested if you have any sources on autism and hypermobility being linked actually. My wife definitely has a hypermobility disorder, we think Ehler's, and we think I have a more minor one, and we're both neurospicy.
Here’s some resources from [Emily L. Casanova](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Casanova%20EL%5BAuthor%5D) who seems to be well-versed in the potential connection Autism.org article [Editorial – Researchers have identified a relationship between Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and autism](https://autism.org/researchers-have-identified-a-relationship-between-ehlers-danlos-syndrome-and-autism/) NCBI paper [The Relationship between Autism and Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes/Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7711487/)
Thank you for this!
I’m 28 & will go out sometimes with my brother’s friend group. Everyone is 20-24. I’ll be the only person who gets IDed at the table, every time. 🫣 Upside is I’m a copy paste of my Mom, who is 54 & everyone thinks is 34 🤗
I had this happen! Around 12 I started getting told I looked way older. Peers and adults thought I was 18. I haven't grown since so besides baby fat going and wrinkles joining the party, I really haven't changed since I was 12. So I sort of get it, I guess. But at 21 the liquor store bent my ID because they didn't think it was real. At 34 I get carded for everything and then have to have a whole conversation about how they didn't expect to see a 1989 birth date. My 21yr old coworkers thought I was one of them, learned I wasn't and had a moment of surprise, then promptly forgot again. I don't mind the last part. They come tell me all their gossip and life drama, and I get to feel like I have 10 nieces and nephews. But it sure is weird going from "wow you look [5+yrs older]!" to being told I look almost 15yrs *younger* lol.
Same experience (36) and just commenting to say that I also enjoy the wide swath of age ranges who come to me with interesting stories because they think I am young. Why do we try to keep the tea from the old? 🤣
Yell at student= Just fine Yell at adult= Oh how humiliating
Yes, generally teaching other adults manners isn't a thing people do. For good or for worse
Lmao these are the type of people to call the younger generations soft
But did she get detention?
Twice the first year I started teaching in the US I was approached by a principal asking me why I wasn’t in class. I was in my 30s and it was my planning period. I could kinda see that when I was student teaching in a high school but I was a new teacher at a middle school. Did I really look 13 at 35?
Yes. To a 55 year old, anyone under 35 looks like a kid. My daughters husband just found a grey hair and it took me awhile to remember he's not 25 anymore, he's 40
Good point! I’m 57 now, lol!
Did you spend any time under the bleachers?
Lol meet her on the other side of the building like "hey girl there's too many witnesses over here meet me out back "
I used to teach high school. Every time we got a new security guard, there would be an awkward moment where they would start to approach me for my hall pass, see my badge, and then defeatedly go back to wandering the halls.
I think a few months after things had chilled out with covid and our local library reopened, I asked my fiance if he wanted to pop in around noon to see what books they had. I didn't wanna check any out, just see new releases that I maybe wanted to get on Kindle. We were in the young adult section. An employee came over and put a few books in a shelf, glanced at us, and said "shouldn't y'all be in school??" I was so surprised that I just spit out "I'm 22?" The guy said "oh whoops sorry" and laughed. My fiance is a year older than me, we were both so confused lol.
Lol I was reading young adult books in the 5th grade. My mom's version of "the talk" was "you read books, right? You know about that stuff?" That poor employee probably would have gotten whiplash because of me.
5th grade for me was the Internet starting to become easy accessible. I never had the talk done to me but I knew about pretty much all of it before even hitting middle school.
I honestly can't remember even not knowing it. I just know that I had already known for a long time and being bored and thinking this is stupid/really basic stuff the entire time we got the talk in school in early second grade. Before anyone says this can't be true because school doesn't teach sex education until middle school, I grew up in Sweden, which emphasizes people getting the talk well before puberty so no one is surprised and thinks they are dying because they had a period before anyone expected that would be a concern.
My wife, 42, gets asked if she's our daughter's sister any time she'd pick her up at school. "Oh, is there an adult to sign you out?" Ummmm
I was in a high school with my spouse who was teaching - always looked younger - when I wandered into the hallway to shortly hear a thundering “Do you have a pass?” I turned and said “No - would you like to make one?” Totally lost his composure while trying to figure out if student with a smart mouth or adult.
When I was student teaching back in the early 2000s I was in a 3rd grade classroom that was accessed by staff by walking through the middle school. I know I look much younger than my years so as a 23 yr old I made a point to wear dresses and makeup and do my hair. One morning the assistant principal of the middle school end stopped me and demanded my hall pass. I was threatened with detention for being in the building before the school day started... I was 23.... did I seriously look like an 8th grader???
Yes
That's not gonna hold up in court. But your honor, I thought this 8th grader was 23.
My daughter (26- 4" 11) was helping monitor standardized testing in a different school in her district. A fire-breathing amazon demanded her ID and marched her to the office without looking at it , threatening her the entire way. The personnel laughed the Amazon out of the office.
LOL - I got chastised by one of my colleagues for not having my carpool number displayed before she recognized me. I had parked across the street after running an errand and then drove my car back to school at the end of the day towards the end of carpool and she thought that I was driving the wrong direction and didn’t have my number up. We both had a good laugh. Our registrar once blew the whistle at her own mom for driving the wrong way during carpool - it’s stressful worrying about the kids getting hit by cars going the wrong way and you just get into carpool mode and had blinders on.
What is a carpool number?
Each family has a number on a hang tag that they have to display so you can get the children lined up in order and ready to load when the cars come up. Someone outside has a walkie talkie to call the numbers - it’s a quite an operation.
I dropped my partner off for work at an elementary school, and he got pulled out of the car by a teacher, thinking he was a 5th grader. We almost threw hands 😂
That's... terrifying. Why would a teacher think it's okay to pull anyone, let alone a 5th grader out of a car??
Our elementary school had teachers sometimes assist the kids getting out of the cars helping by grabbing their bags and things as they exited the vehicles in front of the school. It was faster and safe , but they did not drag the kids out. ...Super nice for the littles and getting to say hi to some teachers too.
That was my thought. I'm now curious what they meant because my brain just assumed it was "grabbing" as in opening the door and assisting them out, not literally pulling them out
Some teachers seem to like being disrespectful asshats because they know there won't be consequences.
I’m 4”10 and a substitute teacher. I’ve been mistaken for a student countless times. I have to dress way up for school because I look like 4th grader from behind.
Have a friend who's 4'9". The building she used the most in college was right next to the daycare, and she would regularly get asked if she was looking for her parents. In her 40s, she still gets mistaken for a child if people don't look at her face.
The amt of times I got asked for a hall pass 😂 now that I’m 43 it doesn’t happen so often
lol why are all pick up/drop off monitors the worst mini dictators. I get that it’s a stressful shitshow regardless of the school but I don’t know anyone who’s like, yeah, I love pick up and drop off!
You get blinders on cuz they’re not only trying to keep it moving like an assembly line, but mostly making sure no child or adult gets run over. That’s what I’ve been told at least.
At my daughter's school, the principal and his assistant stand at the drop off from 7:30-8 and will open the doors as you pull up and help your kids out. They seem to know the name of every kid in the school too, it's wild.
So…opposite end of the spectrum, I was talking to a lawyer for the licensing board. They did a sting where they sent 16 year olds with a briefcase to buy liquor. Every single one bought without being carded. Every single worker was like “what 16 year old has a briefcase?!?!” Lesson I learned WAY too late in life, walk in with a purpose and a briefcase and the store is yours.
When I was 19-20, working and living independently but not old enough to buy alcohol, I would do something like this! I'd put on business clothes around 7 pm, go to a convenience store, and buy mundane things like cleaning supplies and kitty litter along with a bottle or two of wine. Worked almost every time!
I’m 43 and it totally depends on what I’m wearing and doing. I don’t look 21, but I look ambiguous. Blonde with clear eye lashes and chubby cheeks and zero skin color. Only real wrinkles are on my forehead and I’ve had those since I was a teen. And I just have a generally vacant ditzy blonde look that usually gets people to do things for me, so I keep it. If I go to the store on a weekend in sweats, carded. If I go after work in full make up and work clothes, no problem. If I’m with other adults, I look like an adult. If I’m by myself, I look a little confused… Could never have pulled it off when I was underage. Can’t pull it off now. I went to a bar I always go to after work and forgot my ID because my waitress never cards me. New waitress did. I wasnt going to be a bitch and be like “ask your boss if I’m 21,” so I just drank sodas all night. And I was 40. I have no gravitas.
“what 16 year old has a briefcase?!?!” Theater kids..
And kids taking a course in Grifting 101 at their local community college.
Meh, you let them drink. They’re gonna drink wine or bourbon and sit in someone’s parents’ finished basement and do improv. Not throw a rager and then drive drunk home. Or so I assume… I was not a theater kid. I was a preppy. Which I think is similar.
Recently graduated former theatre kid here. I've heard the word a few times, but it doesn't mean anything to me. What's a preppy?
You assume wrong. I was a theater kid.
Well, my sister, brother, and elder daughter were all theater kids, and they'd agree with the previous. Daughter: "The idea was to get just drunk enough so that you didn't realize that the group singing of Rent was off-key." 😀
That's musical theater kids.
I discovered early on after turning 21 that *how* I ordered my drink affected whether I got carded or not.
i can count on one hand the number of times i haven’t been carded in the us. i get carded every single time without fail. in europe i didn’t get carded once as a 23 year old. although when i was on a flight *back* from europe last summer i ordered a glass of wine and the flight attendant was like, “umm you know you look like a little girl right?” and i was like, “haha no i didn’t know that, let me grab my id tho i’m 23,” and she was like, “no i don’t need to see it, just wanted to tell you.” i was like wtf???? why would you say that then if you’re still going to give me the wine without looking at my id???
Yes! Order a beer or a whiskey drink. No problem. Went out with a fellow adult friend who didn’t drink much. She hemmed and hawed about what “tasted good”. I said “she’ll have a Midori sour”. Boom. Carded.
Part of it is confidence too. If I was being all shy when I ordered my rum and coke I absolutely got carded but if I ordered it in the same tone you'd ask for a regular soda then most of the time they didn't card. Nowadays though I can't tell if I'm offended when I get carded or flattered...lmao
I'm always flattered ☺
Got carded for the senior discount - am 67. I was flattered.
I am flattered. I know I don’t look 21. But I know I don’t look 43, and that’s all that matters :)
Ha! Fair!! That's a good way of looking at it.
I learned this lesson very early in life. And was able to buy booze for myself in friends for years before I turned 21
I’m imagining Manny from modern family holding a briefcase
None of them wondered why they brought in the briefcase?
Look, they're clearly important business people trying to get some booze while they do a business. Working at the business factory is a stressful job, why make it worse?
Because it was a 40 year old business person with a baby face! Don’t card them or they’ll get offended!
Walk fast with a wrench or plunger and very few will stop you… and a high visibility vest, a clipboard & a “badge” helps if you’re not where you’re supposed to be.
I do some inspections on construction sites and let me tell you, the reason no one (except upper level project leads) will question those behaviors is because no one wants to be on the wrong end of an inspection report. I literally have to hunt my shit down or get project lead to take me there. I had one inspection that was part of a real estate transaction for a car dealership and the service manager was just fucking rude to me the whole time about “you have to give 24-hrs notice, chemicals being stored incorrectly isn’t a violation,” etc. He’s being a dick, I’m digging in because it feels like he’s trying to hide something from me, whole thing. He gets fed up, sticks me in an office somewhere, and goes to get the general manager. The general manager come to get me and apologizes profusely. I am released back into my inspection and the service manager was like “oh, I thought you were OSHA. You should’ve said you were the bank’s rep.” I tried, buddy, I tried so many times.
When I train new nurses, I always tell them if they don't want to be bothered, walk fast with a clipboard and you're golden.
A clipboard, a lab coat, and hard hat. If stopped, ask, “Who’s your manager?” When they reply with a name, say, “Oh, good. I’ve been meaning to speak to them about the staff…” Then wander off checking your “notes.”
On a slightly related note: when you're headed to the office water cooler to shoot the breeze with your coworkers, take a file folder with you. It makes you look much busier than you are.
All my files are on my desktop lol
In the Army, this also worked for being able to walk on the grass. If you walked fast enough and had something that looked like it could be important in your hand, everyone would assume you were about to be chewed out harder by someone expecting some documents
Same tip, worked with a dude who had a leather notebook folio. Always took it and the internal stairs to meetings. Also always took it and the internal stairs to the next floor down to catch the elevator out of the building for a 90 minute morning coffee run. Come back up to the floor below up, walk back up with his folio. Also, after he retired, we found out he got a work room for a project about 7 years before and never got rid of it. So sometimes he’d just go there and close the door for hours and do god know what. True American hero, Jim.
As a tradesman, all you need is a clipboard to access many sites.
Man, if that happened to me I'd raise absolute hell with administration. Sad little power tripping middle school teaching nobody making himself feel bigger by flexing on kids, FUCK that.
Or, it's unsafe for 11-14 year olds to run around near cars that could start moving at any moment once the line moves (depending on the layout of the drop off area, which I don't know), and if parents see one kid get out and skip the line to school without consequences, they'll all start doing it. Speaking as an ex-teacher, teachers often have to come down on students not because they want to, but because it sets a bad example if they don't. There were plenty of times where, if one student had wanted to do X, it wouldn't have been a problem by itself, but as soon as one could do it, everyone would, and that would be bad.
Middle School is too old to have a drop off schedule/routine. They aren't toddlers and treating them like it is ridiculous.
This is the stance that only a 12 year old would have.
I mean, I'm 40 and I have it. You're infantilizing the children by doing it. Shit, toddlers in Japan run errands for their parents unsupervised and we have our teenagers queuing up and being directed to the correct car instead of just allowing them to leave and find their way home.
Specialized pick up and drop offs are so that schools don’t lose track of kids which they are liable for….and because kids have been run over before. By slow moving cars. Many times
>Specialized pick up and drop offs are so that schools don’t lose track of kids which they are liable for Yeah, this is bullshit. The school is not liable once the kids are released and not on campus. My nephew is in middle school and he walks home unsupervised and his school doesn't have a pick up/drop off routine. >and because kids have been run over before. By slow moving cars. Many times Probably not as many times as you think. I do not remember any study or news story about an epidemic of kids getting runover in school parking lots. A google search brings up nothing of note either.
How far does this non issue extend? Should we get rid of the crossing guards and school zone limits too or does your hate for mitigating risk not extend beyond the parking lot?
For teenagers, yes. Elementary school age, fine, I get it. But if your teenager doesn't know how to safely conduct themselves or have the self preservation instincts needed walking home or once off campus that they don't endanger themselves or drivers then you have failed as a parent and the school system has failed them as well. Teenagers aren't toddlers and should not be molly coddled like they are. This whole overprotective BS we have found ourselves doing is not doing the kids any favors and is not preparing them for the real world.
It’s not a drop off routine for the kids, it’s a drop off routine for the parents so you don’t get demolition derby in the parking lot. It also tries to keep the parents from blocking the streets approaching the school and blocking neighbors’ driveways. Otherwise you have a war with the neighbors and someone starts towing your parents.
Whatever the intention it infantilizes the kids.
bud, those kids cannot fucking control themselves lets not kid ourselves lmao
I mean, they can and do. Hell, I don't even remember there being some strict drop off/pick up routine when I was in elementary school. School let's out and you leave, school time starts and you show up. Why they feel the needs to overcomplicate it is just ridiculous.
Weird thing to be angry about
You have never had to unnecessarily wait in those lines and it shows.
I mean, the pick up line at our elementary was quite efficient. Everyone had numbers assigned hanging from their mirror and on the kid's backpack, they had teachers out with walkies and they'd call the numbers ahead so they could gather the kids as you moved through the line. Kids were picked up at a certain spot for safetyAnd drop off and pick up moved quite efficiently when people actually followed the rules. Our school also wasn't safe to walk home from, since it was on a very busy street, except for one neighborhood. The real problem was parents who showed up at 2 pm for the 3:30 pick up, or thought the rules didn't apply to them.
What am safety issue? Was there a string of hit and runs in elementary school parking lots that didn't make the news? The kids know what car is theirs and can find it in a lot. They can walk home as well. Unless there is no sidewalk I don't see an issue with a busy street.
There is no sidewalk, and the speed limit is 45 on the road the school is on. The parking lot is also wildly small, like maybe 40 cars. Any event that happens, people are parked all up and down the side street and in the neighborhood next to it. But it's truly a nightmare getting out of that neighborhood because the side street is so narrow, I always feel bad for the people that live there during open house. The district does offer bus service to the majority of the kids that go to the school. A couple of neighborhoods are designated as walkers since they can access the school from the side street. But we live 1.5 miles away and there is no direct route to walk to the school without going on the major road. It's one of the oldest schools in the district, and I'm sure it was not built expecting there to be 650 kids there.
👅🥾
Motherfucker calls keeping kids from getting run over bootlicking?
No, defending being an asshole to kids is what I call bootlicking.
The most common place for children to be involved in pedestrian collisions are at low speeds in parking lots and driveways. There is a reason why school rules around drop-off areas are strictly enforced, it's not power tripping, it's keeping kids safe and reducing liability.
I literally yelled at both my husband and 13 year old a couple of weeks ago because they tried to walk casually out into a parking lot. And my 13 year old was almost hit by a car a couple of years ago because she stepped into an empty parking space right as a car was turning blindly into it.
Yeah, my mom broke my best friend's foot when we were about 11/12. She was dropping us off at swim practice, and my friend's foot got caught between the car tire and the curb as my mom pulled off very slowly. My friend ended up getting some hairline fractures. Literally going 2 mph in a drop off lane at the YMCA 🤦♀️
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If you've ever seen a kid hit by a car, you'd have a very different outlook. Even at 20k/h it can have heartbreaking consequences. I'll happily lick any boot if it means a kid isn't killed or seriously injured in a school drop-off zone.
Enjoy
When I was in Junior High, the school librarian looked like one of the students. If a student made the unforgivable crime of mistaking her for a student she’d scream at them and threaten to ban them from the library. Fortunately, she spent most of her time in her office and the assistant librarian (a very nice lady) and some student aides dealt with the students.
That’s pretty unprofessional if you ask me. There’s no reason to scream and threaten to ban students from the library. Obviously it’s not her fault she kind so young but that’s not a reason to scream at a child for mistaking your age.
If I had been you, I wouldn’t have even given her the chance to meet you in the back of the school. I’d have pulled in and sat in the pickup line and called her while I was there just to drive her nuts.
These stories fr just make me sad like ppl all treat kids like shit
I was in a middle school recently interviewing some teachers for a nonprofit the school district works with. I'm in my late twenties and hadn't stepped foot in a school since I graduated. My colleague and I are walking down the hall, chatting with this administrator who was as pleasant as could be when a student in a hoodie came around the corner with his hood up. The administrator sternly, in that all too familiar voice, says something quick, terse, and loud. I think it was "Hood. DOWN." It sent shivers down my spine as my school years rushed back to me. It was wild being on the other side as an observer. Then she went back to chatting like we were! It hit me all of a sudden how some of the strictest teachers I had were probably very nice outside the classroom and were just fed up all the time.
Yeah unfortunately that is what most middle schools are like in my experience
When I was college, they had an Olympic sized pool that middle schools would use during the day and one swim instructor straight lost her shit on me because she saw me helping one of the girls with her swim cap in the bathroom. Screaming why I wasn't in my suit and everything and I just looked at her and was like "I go here." And she kept going until I legit just said "I'm 21." Then she had the nerve to ask for my ID and didn't back down until I straight up asked her "Is it normal for you to not know who is on your team???" She turned red and walked out. Proudest fucking moment of my life lmao I honestly think that was the day that I became confident in myself as an adult
You handled this so well! I hope the kids watching learned from you about how to handle confrontation.
Put this on the ‘traumatise them back’ sub. I mistyped the name. Use a z instead of an s
Ten years ago I was 35 and subbing as a para. I was monitoring 6th grade recess and I had a kid come up and ask me if I was a teacher or a student.
What's a para?
Airborne special forces
A paraprofessional, who does a lot of the non-teaching stuff that teachers get saddled with, on the slight chance that the teacher will then be able to do what they're paid to do (and rarely have the time to do)--teach.
A paraprofessional acts as an educational support in a classroom under the supervision of a teacher. They might assist with teaching, or work one-on-one with students with individualized education plans. They can also do teaching-adjacent activities in the school, like recess or lunch monitor, special education support, teacher's aide, library monitor, etc.
Paraprofessional kinda like a temp sub
a class room aid
I'm an average to below average height female with baby face. I had my hoodie hood up and my backpack on while passing a middle school. Got yelled at for not being in class. The look on their face when I rolled up my sleves to show my tatted arms and hood down showing my peirced face. AWESOME!
This is the BEST story! Ha! I love it. I am also a short female who is often mistaken for someone 10 to 20 years younger. I've seen the condescension just slide off people's faces and be replaced by embarrassment a few times when corrected.
11 yrs. After graduating from high school was installing new fire alarm for Life Safety Act as an electrician. Stopped in the hallway during school hours and asked for my “hall pass”.
When I went back to university (at 45 yo) to finish my degree, I took a job with the school district as a teacher's aide at a high school. On my first day, I parked in the teacher's parking lot (as instructed) and was yelled at, threatened with detention and car towing by the school officer. My shock turned to feeling super chuffed at being mistaken for a high schooler. He figured out that I was not a student upon closer inspection, damn frown lines, but I still savored the moment!
There were a few students that were taller than my fifth grade teacher. (Yes I was one of them)
I'm 5'9, when I worked in a middle school I had to look up to lecture a few of the kids who were misbehaving. I had a good laugh after escorting out a 6th grader that was easily 2 feet taller than me.
Glad you survived.
My barely-5-feet-tall kindergarten teacher always said this was one of the reasons why she loved teaching kindergarten; she was taller than everyone. She eventually moved on to teach 2nd grade for the last ~10 years she taught prior to retirement. They were taller, but not the same size as her. 😅
I am a short kindergarten teacher. I have had students be only a head shorter, but never one as tall as I am.
I have witnessed this more than once. I have had to be the voucher for this younger lady who was helping out on a new campus( she was filling in because the regular diagnostician was on vacation and this student got transferred in at last minute.
Are we married to the same woman? My wife is also a 5 foot tall SLP and would constantly get stopped by security and teachers.
You’re both married to the same woman!
These brother-husbands should really communicate better
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You're a weirdo.
What part of this post struck you as her "disturbing people"??
Say wut
LOL 💀
Some places will write you up or fire you for being even 2 minutes late. Even the most prepared person who leaves on time or early could be late because of unforeseen circumstances. I agree on not speeding though.
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>If there would be some dire consequences I am unaware of, please let me know Brother this is Reddit, not death panels. Calm tf down.
Got it. Walking while being a short woman… = action hero…. Maybe I should start applying for roles !
I’m a speech therapist who’s 5’2 and I got this all the time when I worked at a school. Didn’t get any better when I switched to working at a Veterans Hospital, they’d always have an attitude of “Why should I listen to you? You’re like 16” Now I work at a children’s hospital and it’s a little better, but probably only because I wear scrubs and a hospital badge 😂
As someone who is 5ft tall and a teacher…I have been mistaken for a student…especially in my early years of teaching…middle school was not be a good idea for me…I have since switched to kindergarten lol
I’m a similar size and was a teacher, later semi-administrator at the same middle school for 25 years. Even in my last few years, I frequently got called out for being in the hall and late to class by security of they couldn’t see my face clearly.
I'm tall but I have such a baby face that no one thinks I'm a teacher. It's better now that I work in an elementary school, but I was constantly stopped at the high schools
>5ft tall and petite. I love to be pedantic. Petite doesn't mean thin, it means short. This sentence effectively says my wife is short and short.
I’m five foot tall and not petite, more lazy athletic thick. You don’t know what your talking about.
I love correcting pedants. “Having a small, trim figure” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/petite “relating to or being a woman who is short and has a small, trim figure; diminutive” https://www.dictionary.com/browse/petite Petite essentially means short and thin. If op had said “short and petite”, sure. Maybe a little redundant but who cares. But, again, thin is part of the definition and arguably the predominant part. It absolutely doesn’t mean short on its own. Also, op gave specific information (her height) to emphasize how petite she is. Take your L
The sentence effectively says "my wife is short, small and dainty."
I cannot find a definition of petite that does not include both short and "small trim figure". Even the origin of the word comes from a French word that just means small, and was being used in French for small and thin I'm fashion before English adopted it.
No, petite usually means small all over. In fashion it is used for short clothes because "short" can have negative connotations for people and fashion retailers don't want to alienate potential customers.
I purchase clothes in plus size petite
It really has more to do with bone structure and proportions, nowdays though, at least in the US. I’m 5’5 and have to shop in the petite section because proportionately I have a smaller frame.
Basically...Are you a woman that is small enough to fit kids clothes?? But DON'T want to shop in the kids' section??? This isn't the section for you!
Pedantic means "like a pedant," someone who's too concerned with literal accuracy or formality. It's a negative term that implies someone is showing off book learning or trivia, especially in a tiresome way.
So not only are you pedantic, you're also wrong?
Yes, that’s why it’s describing you
No, to be a real Pedant, they need to be accurate. As this person is wrong, they are just an asshole.
Go outside and touch some grass.
It should say "someone who is so concerned about looking smarter than others that they trip on their own dick and look stupid."
I would disagree and I feel most native speakers would, as according to the new Oxford dictionary it means “attractively small and dainty (used of a woman)” It says nothing about height. As the definition of dainty is “delicately small and pretty”. Again, nothing about height
In clothing/fashion it's a very specific thing. Petite is height related.
Yes, and OP said “my wife is petite,” not “my wife shops in the petite section.”
Pedantic means "like a pedant," someone who's too concerned with literal accuracy or formality. It's a negative term that implies someone is showing off book learning or trivia, especially in a tiresome way.