Mama Bear

Mama Bear: noun. When a mother gets very, very angrily protective of her children.

OK, I didn't exactly make this one up. Still, it goes with today's story.

Recently, a man who lives across the street from my son's school has been running his sprinklers when he *knows* that all the kids are going to be passing by. Now, to be fair, we are on water restriction, meaning you have an assigned day to water, and you must water before 10am or after 4pm. So, it's not like there aren't other times he could water.

Today I found out that the man was asked to move his times for the safety of the children. You see, you can't cross the street here and avoid the situation because across the street is where the bus entrance/exit is. The kids have almost gotten hit trying to avoid getting wet. Still, the guy refused to move the times and claimed that he couldn't, which of course is bull.

This morning, after another wet walk, I was standing just barely out of the spray with some other parents and we were expressing our frustration to each other over the situation. The man came out of the house and addressed us.

"Is that any better?"

Apparently, he had moved the times by a few minutes, but it didn't make a difference. He was still running them during the time the children are passing by.

"We're still getting kids veering into the street," the crossing guard said.

"Well," said the man, "I called the water department and they can't do anything about it." I kind of heard this as "The water department isn't going to make me change." Of course the guy has other times he can run his sprinklers that are still on his days in the prescribed times. *Eye roll*

"Couldn't you run them half an hour earlier?" asked one of the dads.

"No," said the man. "I need to walk my dogs in the backyard. No."

Finally, a frustrated dad said, "It's a safety issue, bud."

And then, are you ready for this? The man said, "Not my problem."

Are you kidding me? The guy KNOWS that kids are almost getting hit trying to avoid getting wet, but he still refuses to budge a little because it is not his problem? REALLY????

My inner Mama Bear was about to throw her own hissy fit. I excused myself because I was going to say something I was going to regret. I'm so frustrated because the guy knows this is a problem, but also knows that, legally, we can't do anything about it. Not at all. He will continue to completely soak a very LONG stretch of sidewalk (you didn't think I was talking just a few feet, did you?), parents, and kids, plus cause a safety hazard, because he technically doesn't have to do anything, and he knows it.