Ready Kids › Getting Around Without a Car › Badge 4 › Lesson 4.2
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Being dropped off and picked up
Know where to wait, who is collecting you, and exactly what happens if they are late.
1Watch
Ten minutes past
Ten minutes past
A kid outside a sports hall as it empties, bag on one shoulder. Cars come and go until the car park is nearly empty. A car pulls up and a friend's dad leans across: your mum is running late, she said I should take you. Freeze on the kid's face.
24 secondsIt might be completely true. The film stops because the kid has to decide something before finding out.
2The idea
Three things you agree before you go
Where you wait: a specific place, inside or lit, with people, not the kerb.
Who is coming: a name. If it changes, you hear it from a parent, not from whoever turns up.
What late means: how many minutes you wait, then who you call, then who you call second.
Three things, agreed in the kitchen, take about a minute. They are the difference between a boring wait and a decision you have to make on your own in a car park.
3The idea
The plan only changes through the person who made it
That is what the Two Questions are for. Do I have permission? Would I be happy telling Mum about this after? A lift you did not plan fails the first one, however nice the person offering it is, and however true their story might be.
So when late happens: wait at the spot for the agreed minutes. Call the parent. No answer, call the second number. Still nothing, go inside and tell staff. Nowhere on that list is getting into a car that was not the plan.
4Worked example
The sports hall, done right
Jo’s mum is ten minutes late. A friend’s dad pulls up and says she asked him to take Jo. Jo says: “Thanks, but I need to check with my mum first.” He says fine. Jo goes back inside, by the desk, and rings. No answer. Rings her gran, the second number. Gran says mum is in traffic, wait there.
Jo tells the dad thanks, mum is coming. He leaves. Mum arrives. If gran had said yes, go with him, Jo would have. Same five minutes either way. The difference is who said so.
5Say it
The sentence that works on everyone
Say it kindly, and mean it
“Thanks, but I need to check with my mum first.”
It works on friends’ parents, coaches, neighbours and anyone else. The good ones will understand straight away. That is how you can tell.
6Decide
Mum is twenty minutes late, not answering. A friend's dad offers a lift.
Pick one to carry on.
7Look
The waiting spot
Two places to wait
The same sports hall entrance twice: a kid at the kerb by the road with the car park behind them, and the same kid inside the glass doors under the lights, next to the front desk.
Inside, lit, near staff, where the person collecting you can see you through the glass. Not at the kerb, not round the side, not between parked cars. The spot is chosen so that waiting in it is dull.
8Find them
Which of these are a good place to wait?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 3.
9Your turn
Four pickups
Four pickups
Four scenes: a parent on time at the agreed spot; a parent ten minutes late; a friend's parent offering a lift because your mum said so; a text from an unknown number saying the pickup has changed. For each, tap the move: get in, wait, call, go inside and ask staff.
Only one of the four is get in. The other three are all a version of check first.
10Do it
Before you leave this page
Sit with a parent and agree three things: where you wait, how many minutes late counts as late, and who you call second. Say it back to them. Put the second number in your phone under a name you will find in a hurry.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
Agreed spot, agreed person, agreed time. Late means wait where you are, then call. It never means a different car.
Next lesson: Getting home from somewhere that stopped being fineBadge 4 · Getting There and Back
4.1Transit on your own4.2Being dropped off and picked up4.3Getting home from somewhere that stopped being fine★Badge Challenge