How to Beat the Stress of School Days with Carpools

Finding people to organize a school carpool with is easy; finding the right people to carpool with, on the other hand, is a different story. Ideally, you want to set up a carpool program with kids whose schedules and after-school activities match with those of your children’s. You might also want to consider proximity; the closer your homes are, the easier it will be to pick everyone up and make sure they arrive to school on time. 

To find people to carpool with, you can start by asking other parents when you drop your kids off at school, or post on social media to see who’s interested in being a part of a carpool program.  

Safety is of the utmost importance, especially when kids are involved. Being in a car with kids can cause drivers to easily lose focus especially when kids start to demand something. So before anything else, set some ground rules with the kids and the driving parents so that accidents can be avoided. And just in case accidents do happen, make sure that the program is protected by getting the assistance of a lawyer that’s well-versed in road accidents and personal injury cases.

While it’s true that the number of participants in a carpool program can be dictated by the size of the vehicle, ultimately it’s all about how many kids the carpool driver can manage. A good rule of thumb is to remember that the lower the child’s age, the less you should carpool. Preschoolers and first graders are harder to manage than kids in say, middle school or junior high. While you can always accommodate more children in the carpool, remember that at the end, your goal is to make your life as a mother much easier and less stressful. 

Unless you are already familiar with all the parents of the kids in the school carpool, it might also be a good idea to have a sit-down with all the parents just get to know each other; your children’s safety is at stake, after all.

Take some time to exchange contact information and set up a schedule of who will be driving on which day, and whether they will be doing pickup or drop-off. It might also help to have a chat group and a shared calendar, that way everyone stays up to date on the carpool program. You can try using an online carpool signup sheet to help manage everybody on the program.