Ready Kids › Out and About › Badge 3 › Lesson 3.2
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The pickup
Know exactly who is allowed to collect you, and what to do when the plan changes by text.
1Watch
The car at the gate
The car at the gate
End of a club. A kid comes out to the car park. A car she knows is there, but a different adult is at the wheel: her friend's dad, waving. Her phone buzzes with a message from a number she does not know: mum's stuck, go with him. The film stops with her looking from the phone to the car.
26 secondsShe knows him. She has been in that car before. Watch what the message does to her.
2The idea
The list is the plan. The text is not.
Every family has a short list of who collects you, agreed in advance, at a kitchen table. It is usually three or four people. Somebody who is not on the list does not collect you, whatever they say, whoever sent the message.
A plan that can be changed by any text from any number is not a plan. If it really has changed, your parent can ring you, on a number you already have, in their own voice. That is what a real change sounds like.
3The idea
What you do when the plan seems to change
Say it, to the adult: “I have to check with my mum first.” Polite, short, then you are done talking.
Go back inside, where the staff are.
Ring your parent on the number already saved in your phone. Not the number that just messaged you. Or ask the staff to ring.
Wait inside until you hear yes, in your parent’s own voice.
Replying to the message is not a check. It asks the person who sent the text whether the text is true. Recognising the car is not a check either. The check is your parent’s voice on your parent’s number.
4The idea
Her friend's dad, and the message
Back to the car park. She likes him. She has been in that car twice. She still says “I have to check with my mum first,” and he says of course, and she goes back inside. She rings her mum’s number. Her mum answers on the second ring. Her mum is not stuck.
Her mum has sent no message. She found that out from a doorway, with a member of staff next to her, instead of from a back seat. Two minutes. And if her mum had said yes, go on, it would have cost the same two minutes and nothing else.
5Decide
The message says mum is stuck, go with him. What do you do?
Pick one to carry on.
6Say it
What you say to the adult in the car
Say this in your normal voice, then go back inside
“I have to check with my mum first”
It is polite and it is short. Anybody genuinely on your list will nod, because they already know that is the rule. Then you go inside and ring.
7Find them
Which of these are actually checks?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 3.
8Your turn
Four pickups
Four pickups
Four short scenes at four different gates. Each one has a person, a reason and a message. For each, decide: goes, or waits and rings. Two of them are people you know well. That is deliberate.
Knowing somebody is not the same as them being on the list. The list is written down. Knowing somebody is a feeling.
9Do it
Before you leave this page
Sit with a parent and agree the list: everyone who is allowed to collect you, by name. Say it back to them. If it has more than four names on it, it is probably too long.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
Who collects you is agreed in advance. A change by text is not a change.
Next lesson: Your family word