Do your kids ride the bus? Now I know for most people this is almost a silly, stupid question.You’ve all heard how Billie is a paranoid mom and now you will see my paranoid mom side. I’ve been trying to work with my daughter’s school to get her on the bus for the last 3 weeks it’s been a nightmare. My daughter’s school is being rebuilt so they are bussing all of the children to a fill in school. You would have thought with the rebuilding going on that they would have had the kindergartners situated from the get go. I mean we’re all freaked out about sending them and want to make sure that they are going to make it there and back.
All I’ve wanted was to put her on the bus to get her there and then I’ll do the parent pick up.Finally after no help from the teacher or the staff at school as I was dropping her off I marched right up to one of the buses to see if I could get any kind of information.Thankfully, the driver asked me to go back in and talk to the office staff and make sure they had sent my daughters information on to the bus barn.I’ve got time to kill so I make the dreaded journey back into school with my 3yr old. As I’m standing in line I realize that it’s another bus driver in front of me. Rather than dealing with the office staff again, I wait for the driver to finish and ask her if I can ask her a question. She had all of the info I was looking for except the time she would be picked up. She advised me to contact the bus barn and that they would be able to help me. Sure enough, as soon as I got home I called and finally got that taken care of. Bella was going to be riding the bus to school the next day.
Now here is where my paranoia kicks in. Bella has never been on a bus, never rode in a seat without a booster, she doesn’t know kids that ride the bus, and is she going to listen to the instructions the driver is going to give her. Not to mention I'm sending my kid off with a complete stranger in hopes of her making it where she needs to be.My daughter is small, very petite, and I’m terrified of another student picking on her or being mean.Now as her mother, I should know damn well my kid can hold her own. She has all along whether it’s her cousins, her brother, or the other kids in the cul-de-sac. But I’m scared, actually more correctly is terrified,and all I’m trying to do is put her on a bus for the PM kindergarten with a bunch of other kindergarteners. I know I should relax a little, I mean damn I rode the bus both ways until I could drive, but I also know how I acted on the bus. OHH bad bad habits can be picked up. I’m nowhere near ready to put her on the bus coming home just the thought of it makes my chest tighten up.
Today is the big day. Bella is freaking ecstatic that she’s riding the bus today. All she keeps asking me is when are we going to the bus, stop how much longer until we leave? So the clock hits 12 and we’re walking out the door. I keep running over all of the rules of the bus I can remember. The biggest one being you need to listen to the bus driver when you get to school so you know where to go and you need to stay in your seat when the bus is moving. She quickly snaps back and tells me yea, well a kid at school says you can switch seats when the bus driver isn’t looking. Hmm I know who told her this and low and behold she’s a parent pick up, so not the kid I want my kid listening to if ya know what I mean.
We’re standing at the end of the street and my neighbor walks out, she’s knows this is a huge thing for me and she’s coming to watch it unfold. The bus pulls up, Bella hops on like she’s been doing this forever, me on the other hand am making the driver tell me her name and the schools he’s going to while I also explain she’s never ridden a bus before. He smiles and says not to worry I’ll get her there. He shuts the doors and I turn around with tears streaming down my face. My baby wants to grow up so much faster than I am ready for. My neighbor says, “Good thinking with the sunglasses momma, she’s going to be fine, don’t worry.” Worry is not the word for it, I’m freaking the F out!
Nater and I slowly make our way back to the house where the next hour I spend constantly checking my email, opps yea I already emailed her teacher and sent a note in her backpack firmly stating do not put my kid on the bus home I will be there to pick her up!
I’ve got 40 minutes before I’m supposed to pick her up. I’m anxious to hear how it went but also excited for her. She’s been asking since she was about 3,” When am I going to ride the bus?”Well honey you finally did it. Now as for sending her home on the bus, Nope nowhere near ready for that one! I’ll eventually get there just not today! Would it be silly of me to actually see if I could ride home with her just to make sure for my own benefit she knows where she’s going and what she doing? IDK.. We’ll see!
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