I remember when Jadyn was almost 5 and was starting Kindergarten, her Elementary was about 15-20 minutes on the other side of town. We chose to put her in a "Magnet" school that specialized in Math and Science. It offered more than a normal elementary school so it was worth the long drive. She was always begging me to PLEASE let her ride the bus. She learned early the saying "It's not fair" because her friends got to ride it. Well her friends moms weren't paranoid like me :)
She finally got to ride the bus on her first field trip, and then I realized I can use the excuse of her being able to ride the bus EVERY time they went on a field trip. (Like she was special and I made a deal with the school) LOL
It still didn't stop her from asking every year. When we moved to our small little city, there was no reason for her to ride the bus because her school was less than a mile away. But now the times have changed and I don't like wasting gas and time on a long drive their and back.
I have to look back and think of WHY I have so much anxiety about the BUS?!?!
When I was in kindergarten I lived in New York and I rode the bus every day with my 2 older brothers. I met my best friend Amanda on the bus and we are STILL friends to this day!!! So why would it be such a bad thing? When we moved to Midland is where the trouble started. I was in Jr. High, 7th grade and I started a couple months into the school year. It was bad enough that I was in Jr. High, but to make it worse I was the "new girl" that didn't fit it.
On the way home is when a group of kids who had known each other for years decided to talk loud and make me miserable. I remember them sitting a few seats away and saying " I bet she lives in a run down shack" or "look at what she's wearing, its so ugly". They basically picked me apart from head to toe on my appearance and the assumption of my home" Since I lived so far out in the country our house was hidden behind a bunch of trees so they couldn't see it. But I wished they could've because it was a nice house,lol!
When I look back on it I think of WOW, thats a classic case of being Bullied! I have always been terrified of my children being picked on the way I was. I also remember learning all sorts of stuff about sex from A-Z and the "real world" from the bus, I know I REALLY didn't want her learning all the WRONG and Nasty stuff at a young age the way I did, LOL! The weird thing about these kids is after a few months they quit picking on me, or I finally stood up with some smart comment and they finally shut up....I really can't remember. But we eventually became friends, and one day the bus took everyone home in reverse and they all lived in run down Trailers! I'm sure there is some twisted psychological reason for them to want me to live in the same poverty as they did!
I faced a lot of bullys in my life but have managed to push out the bad memories so it wouldn't hurt.
I remember some good memories of the bus and having to walk to the corner when the sun was rising. When I would get on, our 80 year old bus driver was listening to Earl Pitts and he would say..."Ya know what makes me sick...Wake up America!" I would doze back to sleep and wake up just in time for the bus to stop at the Avery twins house... I would make sure the drool was not running down my chin and I looked nice and normal :) Once they passed my seat I would close my eyes again. As the years went by I made more friends and had fun riding the bus. But the anxiety of it all has stuck with me and I can't forget. So the natural thing to do is protect my kiddos against that same experience.
BUT I guess at 14 and the 9th grade she probably knows a lot more than I can imagine and is tough enough to handle it. She also has an advantage of starting out with knowing half the kids on her bus already. So I will take deep breaths and just allow my baby to grow up....even though I have the school bus blues!!!
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| I asked her to send me a pic of her on the bus and this is what she got :) |
