My Sister Is Still In Her Car! (Not DC)

[Play Care]

My sister lives in Marietta GA. They are in the area hit with the storm yesterday. She teaches and her district closed an hour early - by that point it was too late. She left school at 2:45 yesterday and is still in her car as of 6:20 this morning. Thankfully her husband and the kids made it home and are safe. She is 3 miles from her home and traffic is at a standstill. She is thinking of pulling over and walking once the sun comes up.

[KidGrind]

I am praying she makes it safely home.

[Scout]

OM! How awful! I hope she ends up home warm and safe.

[Laurel]

My sister lives in Marietta GA. They are in the area hit with the storm yesterday. She teaches and her district closed an hour early - by that point it was too late. She left school at 2:45 yesterday and is still in her car as of 6:20 this morning. Thankfully her husband and the kids made it home and are safe. She is 3 miles from her home and traffic is at a standstill. She is thinking of pulling over and walking once the sun comes up.

Wow, I'm sure she will get home okay. They are probably working arond the clock to get those people out. When we had hurricanes here there were workers from other states even.

Laurel

[Mister Sir Husband]

Watching the news this morning... Traffic in the Atlanta area is still in gridlock from yesterday. Even some of school busses full of kids

[Play Care]

To be honest I am furious on her behalf. The state of Georgia was well aware this storm was coming and left shutting down schools and business until the last minute. In 2011 the same thing happened and the state swore they would be better prepared the next time. I understand they don't get snow/ ice and therefore do not have plows but then you shut things down before it gets to that point. They should be embarrassed by their bungling of this. If it were my child stuck on a bus overnight I'd be on the horn to my elected officials and raising HELL.

16 hours after she left work my sister finally made it home.

[Blackcat31]

To be honest I am furious on her behalf. The state of Georgia was well aware this storm was coming and left shutting down schools and business until the last minute. In 2011 the same thing happened and the state swore they would be better prepared the next time. I understand they don't get snow/ ice and therefore do not have plows but then you shut things down before it gets to that point. They should be embarrassed by their bungling of this. If it were my child stuck on a bus overnight I'd be on the horn to my elected officials and raising HELL.

16 hours after she left work my sister finally made it home.

Totally understand your frustration but as a parent, I would not have sent my kid to school. Sometimes there is much to be said about personal responsibility..kwim?

I understand your sister may not have had a lot of choice and maybe HAD to show up for work but sometimes, MY right to personal safety overrides someone else's right to tell me I have to show up at work.

This is similar to daycare closing when the weather is bad...there have been so many posts on here about parents not making the smart decision to stay home with their kids because "hey, you are open" so they might as well come.

As for the businesses in that area....people still showed up, I saw parking lots on the news for places like Applebees and the mall FULL of cars. I am pretty sure most of them weren't employees so why is everyone out there is the weather is so bad and they knew it was coming?

I am so happy to hear your sister made it home okay and is safe! What a horrible experience that must have been for her.

[spud912]

Totally understand your frustration but as a parent, I would not have sent my kid to school. Sometimes there is much to be said about personal responsibility..kwim?

I understand your sister may not have had a lot of choice and maybe HAD to show up for work but sometimes, MY right to personal safety overrides someone else's right to tell me I have to show up at work.

This is similar to daycare closing when the weather is bad...there have been so many posts on here about parents not making the smart decision to stay home with their kids because "hey, you are open" so they might as well come.

As for the businesses in that area....people still showed up, I saw parking lots on the news for places like Applebees and the mall FULL of cars. I am pretty sure most of them weren't employees so why is everyone out there is the weather is so bad and they knew it was coming?

I am so happy to hear your sister made it home okay and is safe! What a horrible experience that must have been for her.

I have a lot of friends in Georgia (I went to high school there) and one post on Facebook last night was a shared post about a daycare bus full of kids being stuck out there. This is exactly what you just said....avoid sending kids to daycare when the weather is known to be severe! Can you imagine the poor bus driver (and hopefully assistant) with a bunch of toddlers and preschoolers all night in that weather?!

[momofsix]

Totally understand your frustration but as a parent, I would not have sent my kid to school. Sometimes there is much to be said about personal responsibility..kwim?

I understand your sister may not have had a lot of choice and maybe HAD to show up for work but sometimes, MY right to personal safety overrides someone else's right to tell me I have to show up at work.

This is similar to daycare closing when the weather is bad...there have been so many posts on here about parents not making the smart decision to stay home with their kids because "hey, you are open" so they might as well come.

As for the businesses in that area....people still showed up, I saw parking lots on the news for places like Applebees and the mall FULL of cars. I am pretty sure most of them weren't employees so why is everyone out there is the weather is so bad and they knew it was coming?

I am so happy to hear your sister made it home okay and is safe! What a horrible experience that must have been for her.

This underscores what I was talking about in the STARS post. If the GOVERNMENT didn't declare a shutdown-people assumed it was safe to go out and have fun, even though they heard the weather forecast. We're being trained to rely on the gov't regulating our every move!
(sorry to hijack)

I too have kept my kids home from school, or pulled them out early when the weather looked like it was going to be bad. Never regretted it. As far as not showing up to work-around here, even if it's a declared state of emergency people are being threatened with getting fired for not showing up Our state is in a terrible economic place right now, so they would have no trouble hiring someone else.

OP I'm glad your sister made it home safely!

[Play Care]

Totally understand your frustration but as a parent, I would not have sent my kid to school. Sometimes there is much to be said about personal responsibility..kwim?

I understand your sister may not have had a lot of choice and maybe HAD to show up for work but sometimes, MY right to personal safety overrides someone else's right to tell me I have to show up at work.

This is similar to daycare closing when the weather is bad...there have been so many posts on here about parents not making the smart decision to stay home with their kids because "hey, you are open" so they might as well come.

As for the businesses in that area....people still showed up, I saw parking lots on the news for places like Applebees and the mall FULL of cars. I am pretty sure most of them weren't employees so why is everyone out there is the weather is so bad and they knew it was coming?

I am so happy to hear your sister made it home okay and is safe! What a horrible experience that must have been for her.

I think that the reality is for many people (myself included) that we don't have the luxury of calling off due to expected severe weather. And it *is* a luxury. A lot of people were out there because their jobs have said weather isn't an excuse for calling out - my sister included. So had she called off there would have been repercussions. Now, she has certainly learned her lesson and the next time this happens she will call off, repercussions be darned. Often even after a state of emergency has been declared many private business still expect their employees to show. Parents send their kids to school because, unlike dc, kids need school. Again, depending on how many days a child has missed, there could be repercussions. I'm sure many parents are now swearing they will never again take the chance.

[Play Care]

This underscores what I was talking about in the STARS post. If the GOVERNMENT didn't declare a shutdown-people assumed it was safe to go out and have fun, even though they heard the weather forecast. We're being trained to rely on the gov't regulating our every move!
(sorry to hijack)

I too have kept my kids home from school, or pulled them out early when the weather looked like it was going to be bad. Never regretted it. As far as not showing up to work-around here, even if it's a declared state of emergency people are being threatened with getting fired for not showing up Our state is in a terrible economic place right now, so they would have no trouble hiring someone else.
OP I'm glad your sister made it home safely!

I know my sister HAD to be at work - weather isn't an excuse for employees to call out. If people were out shopping or whatever then that's something else. But many people don't have the luxury of calling out because of weather. In my area many jobs have polices that severe weather isn't an excuse to miss work, so you can be written up or fired for calling off.

[Play Care]

I have a lot of friends in Georgia (I went to high school there) and one post on Facebook last night was a shared post about a daycare bus full of kids being stuck out there. This is exactly what you just said....avoid sending kids to daycare when the weather is known to be severe! Can you imagine the poor bus driver (and hopefully assistant) with a bunch of toddlers and preschoolers all night in that weather?!

To me school is different from DC. Kids need education. My own dd has inattentive type ADHD and can not afford to miss school. Now, if we had weather that severe I would keep her home, but our schools would probably close anyway. The other week it was really cold here (negative temps and wind chill) and I got flak on a parent board for sending her to school. I drove her in, the school has heat and I knew they were not going outside (and even if they did she had all the right equipment) If I kept her out every time this winter we had those temps, she'd fail. You don't fail dc

[spud912]

Those policies are ridiculous. I can't believe corporations find their place of work so much more important than their employees' safety .

[Unregistered]

Maybe I'm misguided, but I by no means think kids NEED school. Their life does not depend on it. At least not to the point where they can not miss a day or two when weather puts their lives at risk.

[spud912]

To me school is different from DC. Kids need education. My own dd has inattentive type ADHD and can not afford to miss school. Now, if we had weather that severe I would keep her home, but our schools would probably close anyway. The other week it was really cold here (negative temps and wind chill) and I got flak on a parent board for sending her to school. I drove her in, the school has heat and I knew they were not going outside (and even if they did she had all the right equipment) If I kept her out every time this winter we had those temps, she'd fail. You don't fail dc

I getcha . The plus side is that in New York at least your state knows how to handle cold weather! The southern states don't even have snow plows or machinery to help with the ice.