Commentary by Heather Kestian
At the beginning of the school year, my better half and I decided that we would split the morning duties of getting our oldest on the bus. We could have sent our oldest kid to day care to have him get on the bus there, but it seemed like we might be able to re-train his sleep habits by getting him some extra sleep in the morning. The hope was that this would translate to sleeping in on the weekend. For the record, I laughed out loud when I wrote those last two sentences. Apparently, some kids lack the gene for sleeping in. I believe this is a recessive gene, and since my husband is an early riser, genetics says neither of our kids will be sleep machines. His genes have won virtually every battle. He has two mini-versions of himself. I have circles under my eyes.
Fast forward approximately 113 school days and I have two lessons I have learned about the bus stop.
First, an alarming number of people blow off the outstretched arm of the bus, which glows of flashing red lights. Really people? Where on earth are you going that you drive past the bus with the bright lights with little people running around?
I get it. Sometimes you run late and you are in a hurry, but please, stop when the bus stops. The flashing lights are a clue that little people are running around. They run with complete disregard for others around them. They are not watching for you—for the love of Pete, stop. Just stop.
Second, we have a fantastic bus driver. She is kind, cautious, and great with the kids we trust to her care. She is never late. Never. Of the major cities I have lived in, if the public transit I relied on were half as timely as she is, I would not have had to take earlier routes just to make sure I got somewhere on time. See what I did there? If something is making you late, change the routine.
While we let the oldest sleep in, he wakes up in time to get dressed, eat breakfast, help pack his lunch, and walk to the bus stop as appropriate. We get there before the school bus arrives. I have learned that timeliness is an important habit that takes time to build. Start early.