'Mean and Unkind' Mom Applauded for Refusing Parent's Car Pool Demand

Social-media users have backed a mom who shared how she has been left doing extra car pools for a child from her son's school after her husband offered her driving-services.

Mumsnet user Delatron wrote: "I pick up [my] son once a week from school as he does sport that evening. Rest of the time he gets the bus. Another boy also does this sport so [I] decided to lift share with another mom I know.

"Without telling me, my husband offered me out to pick up another boy from my son's school every week. The mother works so can't collect—I work too but have rearranged hours—actually, he did ask me a while ago and I said no."

The time parents spend getting their kids from A to B should not be underestimated. A survey by carpool service HopSkipDrive said that 51 percent of parents spend upwards of five hours a week driving their kids around, with 13 percent devoting more than 10 hours to transporting children to school, clubs and friends' houses.

When it wasn't the poster's turn to collect the kids that week, her husband told her in the morning that she also had to collect the other boy from the school. This meant that she had to drive anyway when the other mom was collecting her son and the other boy.

"Over an hour and 15 minute round trip that I hadn't planned in my day," the poster wrote: "I don't know this mom. I would never ask anyone to pick up my son every week, let alone someone I didn't know, without offering anything reciprocal back."

Getting kids to and from school isn't always as easy as it should be. Figures from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics show that 50 percent of pre-high school students who live close enough to walk or cycle to school will get there in a private vehicle.

Fifty percent of students ride the school bus and 45 percent are driven in a personal vehicle. In low-income families, 60 percent of students say they take the school bus, while in non-low-income families, more than 50 percent of students are driven in a personal vehicle.

While the poster wrote that she could message the mom, she said: "It's all such a faff [pain]. It changes the dynamic in the car and I just think it's really cheeky. I mean, I could work more hours if I just arranged for others to pick my kids up from school."

She wrote that her husband thinks she is being "mean and unkind," but took to the internet to ask others for their opinion.

Other Mumsnet users were quick to side with the mom. One commenter wrote: "Tell your DH [husband] to stop pimping you out for ride shares, and if he wants to accommodate this other working mum, he can rearrange his hours to do it."

Another user agreed: "If he's so keen to pick up he can do it."

"I would do it on my week but I definitely wouldn't be doing it the other week," wrote another commenter. "Just explain to the woman that you only do it every other week and she will have to make other plans."

One Mumsnet user commented: "If he wants to do the driving to pick up a child that isn't his because it is kind he can. He does not get to offer you. You are not his staff."

Newsweek was unable to verify the details of this case.