For years we have seen the lollipop lady as a figure head in traffic calming but is she really such a strong force, what will happen if you ignore her, perhaps a fate worst than death is in hand, are we perhaps all scared that she will jump in the air and throw each side of her shinny yellow coat to the side to unveil a large collection of uzzis then run after your car shooting repeatedly at you. Or perhaps not, well many have said that it is an offence to even ignore a lollipop lady.

But what kind of offence I ask, what is the punishment for doing this bad deed, many of them are paid by the government, so they must have been given some kind of power, some hired by the schools they claim to be helping, well who knows, the lollipop ladies seem to take pride in the fact that they can chalk down the number plates of the offending motorists on their lollipops, but isn’t that just the same as a waiter with a notepad or even a member of a “neighbourhood watch”.

But as the average amount of motorists increase, the traffic jams increase and the tension level amongst drivers hits new heights the lollipop lady keeps her cool and in-fact has recently been given the power to help anyone they so please across the road, thus the change from her lollipop saying “CHILDREN” to it now saying “STOP”.

But would a respectable middle aged man or indeed woman be happy to wait for the lollipop lady to stop traffic then perhaps skip in a childlike manner across the road as the elderly woman dressed like a traffic cone guides them to “safety”.

As if that wasn’t annoying enough they are now being given lollipops that have a camera inside of them so that they can take a picture of your car and send it to the police if you are an offender of “the law of the lollipop lady”, so next time an elderly lady dressed in yellow plastic clothing flashes you you better hope she is not a lollipop lady.

But is she really that bad? Am i making too much of this? Well really it is entirely up to you what kind of opinion you hold of the lollipop lady perhaps you are one yourself, does she really deserve the abuse that I as well as many people have thrown her or even his way (yes that’s right men can do that job to) some of us are happy to pull over to let he lollipop lady/man do the job that they were assigned to.

I know many of us see her proudly waving that stick an marching across the road and simply see an easy target, but is it really anger at her that leads us to have that little feeling of “lets go faster” but is it really caused by that little devil standing on our shoulders whispering rude words in our ear? or is it perhaps that we are all secretly in-fact jealous that she can just walk out into the middle of the road and stop traffic, I bet if you ever tried that it wouldn’t go down to well.

Or is it perhaps deeper, is it because of a deep childhood memory of not having one when you went to primary school or that the one at your primary school would always bee half way across the road by the time you appeared, or maybe she just annoys the crap out of you.

But is it so much of an inconvenience to you if you stop for a few moments to let her take the school children or indeed random people across the road, would you in-fact let them past anyway if she wasn’t their to stop you, is she/he really that bad?

I hope that this article has helped to push your opinion on lollipop ladies in the correct direction, and perhaps given you something to really think about today, as i clearly spent some time thinking about the subject myself.

So next time you’re pulled over by a person franticly waving a large yellow stick at you, stop and ponder for a moment on what you have just read, think about who their helping, think about what they can do if you don’t stop for them, then slam your foot down hard on the accelerator and hope to god that she hasn’t got a camera in that stick of hers.

Thanks for reading.

patrick is an expert research and travel consultant. his current interest is in birmingham airport parking, birmingham airparks.

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