I am one of those carpool moms. It wasn’t something I aspired to be, but there you have it.

Each school day, I drop off my kiddos en route to work instead of shoving them on the bus. This allows them a few more minutes of sleep and me a few more moments of sanity before the day begins.

On Friday, when I dropped off my younger child at the school, the line of cars seemed never-ending. “Did everyone miss the bus this morning?” I wondered.

Oh well, so it will take a bit more time than usual. “At least I left early,” I thought.

So we waited… and waited… and waited. After a while, I felt like a character in a Beckett play: “What the heck is going on up there? Are we waiting for Godot?”

Well, it seems that some of those parents/grandparents must have been sending their babies off to battle with the amount of coddling and cooing that was happening at the front of the queue. “Seriously, people, you do know that the school returns them at the end of the day, don’t you?!” I muttered.

Finally, the kiss ’em, cuddle ’em clan departed and the rest of us could advance forward. Hallelujah! I was now near the point where I could “legally” drop off my rugger, when I noticed that I was no longer running early; in fact, I was close to running late. Oh crap!

As we crept forward at a snail’s pace, I informed my child, as I do every day, “Work hard, be good, learn lots, and have fun. I love you very much.” No reason to waste time later when it could be said during the lull, am I right?

Meanwhile, my child, who had been chomping at the bit to bolt, was poised, hand on handle and pack on back. No sooner had I halted the car, then out the door popped my kiddo, at a run, yelling, “Love you, Mom. Have a nice day!”

Like the stop, drop, and roll fire safety technique taught to kids all over the world, my family’s drop-off lasted less than a couple of seconds. A thing of beauty and efficiency, it was enough to make other carpool parents envious. “Where did they learn to do that? How can I “get that” too?” I just grinned as I rolled on down the road.