FRANKLIN, TN — Nashville-area mother of three Stephanie Blakely Calabrace was clear in a Facebook post that won a collective hurrah from parents everywhere as schools across America are opening. “I will be giving stink eye warnings today,” she warned parents who hold up the student drop-off lane, “but tomorrow I’m issuing citations.”
“I’m only going to say this once,” Calabrace, of Franklin, wrote. “If you have to bathe and dress your kid, comb their hair, scramble them an egg and write them a send off letter before they can exit the car — YOU DO NOT BELONG IN THE SCHOOL DROP OFF LINE. Only people who raised their kids to jump out of the car with backpacks loaded like they are storming the beaches of Normandy while the car is at a slow roll are allowed in the drop off line.
Calabrace made the post public at the request of a friend who thought it might resonate with other parents. The friend wasn’t wrong. Calabrace’s post has been commented on, shared, and liked and loved tens of thousands of times by like-minded parents also frustrated by dawdling parents who ignore drop-off lane etiquette to get in and out as efficiently as possible.
“Amen, Hallelujah and pass the offering plate,” someone commented. “YAAAASSSS, girl! You preach it!”
A dad who said he grew up racing motorcycles claimed “coming into the first turn with 40 motorcycles around you is far less stressful than trying to drop your kid off at school. That mayhem is nuts.”
Calabrace told Yahoo Lifestyle her post “was inspired by this goober who always exited her car IN THE CAR LINE to retrieve her 12-year-old, typically getting the child’s backpack from the trunk and placing it on his arms.”
“Totally agree,” one person commented on the post. “I get so irritated with those type parents in pick up line. They think it’s OK to chat with the teacher outside. It’s my opinion if you have questions, contact you child’s teacher or call the school.”
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Another wrote: “The first day in the middle school drop off line was hell. And the line skippers were ridiculous.”
Calabrace told Yahoo many of those commenting “found it funny and lighthearted, which was how I intended it,”
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Among those seeing the humor was one parent who posted that “tuck ‘n’ roll is exactly right,” adding: “Go, go, go!”
“I don’t even stop the spaceship,” someone else posted. “They just leap out.”
Not everyone loved the post, though.
“This is hilarious, but unfortunately sometimes since my son with ASD all of a sudden has something to say and if I rush him he will be having a terrible day and end up being sent home,” one parent wrote.
“Take your time getting your baby out of the car!” someone replied. “If anyone gives you the stink eye, parents like me have your back!”
“I’m over here like give me the stink eye all day long,” another wrote. “I’m going to make sure my child makes [it] to the door before I leave. Pretty sure I watch too many of the disappeared cases on the ID channel.”
Others hammered Calabrace for being impatient and intolerant.
“I hope you aren’t letting your kids exit until you put your car in PARK,” one parent wrote. “The parents can kindly wait while my kid exits my car.”
Wrote another: “Life is too short for this attitude, enjoy watch[ing] a butterfly fly by while you are in line.”
Calabrace changed the settings of her post back to private to tune out the rancor, but turned it back to public Wednesday after she noticed Facebook user David Danielewicz, who lives in North Carolina, repeated her rant verbatim and made local news.
“I changed the privacy setting back to public after the Daniel guy plagiarized me,” she told Yahoo.
Danielewicz deleted the post and publicly admitted the words were Calabrace’s, not his.
(Ross D. Franklin / AP Photo: File)