It’s back to school for many across the country this week. Others have already been back for weeks! Buses are a mainstay for many families and can cause some stressful situations.
When my daughter was in kindergarten, she took the bus with the “big kids” (through 6th grade). She waited at the end of our driveway for the bus every morning and would walk home from the corner bus drop off in the afternoon (three houses away).
The third week of school, I watched as the bus went past the bus stop in the afternoon and didn’t stop. My heart sank. Maybe she missed the bus? I knew she didn’t have Girl Scouts that afternoon. I called the school, she wasn’t there. I called the bus company and when they finally got a hold of the bus driver after five minutes on hold, she wasn’t on the bus. I was now terrified! Where was my little girl??
As I was ushering my twin boys into the car to go look for my daughter, two big sixth grade boys walk around the corner with my daughter. I may have cried… The substitute bus driver hadn’t stopped at her stop and she didn’t know what to do. These boys lived a few stops after ours and realized that my daughter missed her stop. They were kind enough to take her off the bus with them and walk her home.
There are plenty of “bad” people out there. That day we were blessed with very good people watching over my daughter. The boys watched out for her the rest of the year.
What would you have done differently? What plans do you have with your kids for transportation issues?
It has been a few years since my kids have been on the bus, once the oldest could drive they stopped riding the school bus on a regular basis. While we have all ages riding the bus there were not any bullying issues, the older kids claimed the seats in the back of the bus and the youngest were up front by the driver. My youngest got in a fight on the bus once but it was with kids his own age (they really do have cameras on the bus!). I can only remember two times when I was concerned, the bus was hit by a SUV that ran a stop sign and ended up in a field. The second time was when the school sent out an alert that there had been a report of a vehicle in town with a driver trying to lure kids to approach his vehicle. It is a small town and your pick-up is a form of ID, parents (myself included) were parked at the bus stops and checking the streets in town for a unknown truck… never saw anyone matching the description so he must have moved on.
No bus where we are… get your own self to school. Its a small rural area, only 14 kids in the class, and most are dropped off or picked up by family. School is only a couple miles from my granddaughter’s house, so the time is manageable.
I would submit that your daughter should have “Rogered up” and said "Excuse me Ma’am/Sir you missed my stop! " Going along to get along is one thing kids should know their address, phone number and where they are supposed to be. That said my wife just walked in and noted that some of the bus drivers are rather intimidating (grumpy old farts) and the school system says a “Mile and a half” is walking distance.
It is not disrespectful to question an adult, it is disrespectful to disrespect an adult, there is a difference.