It takes me 30 minutes at each of three different schools to pick up my kids every day. The problem is there is a single lane curb-side for all pick-up activity and a limited space for waiting. So for the six cars that are at the curb side at any given time, invariably only two or three of them find
their bundles of joy within a few seconds.
I thought about airport pick-up rules, such as at LAX - they make you go around again if your passengers are not right there; there is no waiting allowed. This is fine, except that I would not want to wait ten minutes in line only to be forced to go around again because my son had to run to the boys' room at that exact moment, a misfortune to which Murphy would certainly see.
So what I thought of is a transponder for each family. When we arrive at the school driveway, our ID and our kid(s) name(s) are displayed on a message board, in the order in which we arrived. Also, a pager attached to the child's shirt would beep, vibrate, and, optionally, pound the oblivious nincompoop on the noggin with a mallet, shouting "Your ride's here, you meathead!" (OK, not the mallet, but the verbal message would be good).
At that point, anyone not finding their youngsters have to go around again, their name coming off the board until they reach the driveway again.