“Greet your child with a smile, not a mobile.”
That’s the sign parents at St Joseph’s school in North Yorkshire see when they arrive to pick up their kids.
Just in case that’s not clear enough, there’s a picture of an adult holding a phone with a big red line drawn through it. GET. OFF. YOUR. PHONE.
![](https://cdn.mamamia.com.au/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/16182815/smile-mobile-cropped.jpg)
The response from parents at the school has been mixed.
“I don’t think it’s their business, is it?” said one dad when he was interviewed by a reporter from ITV News.
But on Facebook, other parents have leapt to the defence of the school.
“My child attends this school and I totally agree with the signs, 100 per cent,” posted a mum. “They have been away from you for six hours. I personally want to know what sort of day they have had.”
Top Comments
Oh ffs - I was a latch key kid from when I was very young. Both parents working - I prepped my own lunches, got myself to school and back with my big sister (who was a young child herself) . I run a small business from home so this doesn't happen to my child. I prep his lunches, take him to school every morning, dress him, feed him, help him with anything he needs. Sometimes I need to take a business call during school pickup time, sometimes I don't. Either way soon enough it's dinner and bath time, and time for bedtime stories. No phones at all then - could it be possible that the pickup time interaction isn't the only time parents spend with their kids?!?! I certainly don't deserve to be judged.
How about giving parents a list of good conversation starter questions to ask their kids after school? How about setting fun adult/kid projects for homework, instead of handing out worksheets?
I guarantee that if they'd done this, there'd be articles complaining about that too. "How dare the school presume to think I don't know how to talk to my own child?!" "I don't have time to do projects with my children!"
I would not describe the sign as hostile but even if it was, it's just a sign. Keep talking on your phone, if you object so much.
Or parents could just, you know, parent their kids without expecting the school to give them a list that tells them how?