They have been complaining about their mean bus driver all year. I'd hear things like" he doesn't let us sit in the back of the bus" "We can't eat any food on the bus" and "he makes us stay in our seats the whole time and not talk to anyone." Oh the stress of being in elementary school!! I laugh out loud and remind Jane of our conversation a month or so ago. She was getting her backpack ready for school and couldn't find her library book. We talk about the places it could be but it just was nowhere to be found. I ask her where she remembered seeing it last and she said I remember reading it on the bus. I then suggest that she ask the bus driver if he has seen the book and Jane's eyes got really big and she said "I can't he doesn't talk to us, all he says when you say anything to him is sit down (this was said in a great Asian Accent)." "It's like sit down is all of our names", I started laughing so loud and all day long I teased Jane and called her sit down.
On a side note I've had few of the moms in my neighborhood complain about how horrible the bus situation is. One even took her kids off the bus and starting driving them herself. I'm in full defense of the bus. It's been the greatest life savor to send them out each morning still in my PJ's and magically have them appear around 4 each afternoon. I also believe full heartedly that a school bus is probably one of the best places to learn true life skills. I being a bus brat who spent a hour and a half on a bus each day can tell some funny life lesson stories. (That's a blog post for another day) They basically boil down to sometimes you get picked on and sometimes your the one picking on someone else. Life is a balance of learning to rise above the bullies without becoming a victim and realizing that it doesn't make you a better person to put someone down.
So for my girls life I hope they remember this experience with their "mean bus driver" because they've got to be tough to handle all the other "mean situations" that will come along!!
Update September 2016.........Emily and Jane would casually mention how nice it was to have the new bus driver. Then one day Emily came home and said "Mom you remember that mean bus driver, well he's back. I don't know how I'm going to stand it. Maybe I can take the other bus which drives right by the other trax station and get off there and take trax up to our station and walk the rest of the way home". My response "It's really worth all that effort just to avoid this bus driver?" Emily kind of laughed and said "No I guess not"
Love this perspective, and I love the bus, too. Such a life saver!
ReplyDelete