In one month the kids each start their first year in school - one in "big kid" school (aka elementary) and the other in preschool. But this is not what has me a bundle of raw nerve endings. What is? The bigger kid is taking the bus in just a month. The bus.
The bus excites him. It's big. It's yellow. It's not got Mommy on it.
The bus is unnerving me. It's big. It's not got Mommy on it. It's requires the kid to get off and find his own way to his classroom - the kid that can spend oodles of time deeply contemplating who knows what.
I had been semi-successful in talking myself down from this parenting cliff of mild anxiety. "He's not the first kid to take the bus to Kindergarten. *I* took the bus. I survived. . . granted one day I missed the bus on the trip home and I had to wait in the principals office for my mom...but that was Mrs M's fault. The kid across the street takes the bus. Her mom says the driver is fabulous."
Slowly I was feeling less unhinged.
Then I made the mistake of talking to Logan. We talked about Kindergarten and what he was expecting it to be - all the while he worked to shoot his sister with the imaginary laser from his finger tip. Part way through the "getting closer to school!" conversation we stumbled upon the big, yellow, mommy-less bus.
"Hey, I have an idea," he said to me, taking a cease fire as Megan continued to attempt dismantling one of his Transformers. "You can drive next to the bus when I take it."
"I don't think I can do that, Logan," I replied.
He didn't answer at first. The wheels were turning and he was working through the wrench I had just tossed into his carefully crafted plans.
"How will I know where to get off for school?" he asked.
"Well, honey, I think that'd be pretty obvious, right? I mean you get off when you get into the parking lot and see the school building and the driver says 'Ok, everybody out!' or whatever it is the driver says now-a-days," I told him.
"Ok. . ." he said slowly, "But, how do I know when to get off when he takes me home?"
"Logan, sweetheart, you get off when you see home."
"Yeah, but what I'm too short to see out the window?" he asked, clearly looking to find a way to convince me to play escort to the big, yellow, mommy-less bus.
Yeah. I'm back to being unnerved by the bus.
2 comments:
You may not be able to drive next to it. But you certainly can ride behind it & met him at school.
But you know you can't stay in the class with him.
It'll be ok
Aww! This will be a hard year for you! Last year when we moved down here on base I had to let the kids take the bus for the first time. I don't think I sat down once the whole first day. I was so terrified that Drew wouldn't know what to do. And Big Sissy went to a different school so she wasn't there to help him. Now he just takes off in the morning and comes home after school. He doesn't need me any more!
Good luck this year! I'll be here if ya need me! :)
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