More Adventures In Bus Riding:

For those of you who missed out on Cameron’s first experience with the school bus, please take a moment to be brought up to speed by clicking HERE.

Ok, welcome back.

Can you even believe that after all that we still have drama to deal with? After all that the bus company put my child (and me) through, they still weren’t done trying to permanently scar us.

So here is the next chapter in our Adventures in Bus Riding…

Yesterday I was sitting at my computer getting one last thing done before I headed down to get Cameron off the bus when Bill walks in and says the bus just blew passed the house without stopping. I look at the clock, it’s only 3:50 so I know there’s got to be some mistake since Cameron never gets home before 4. I put my shoes on as my mind starts looking for some possible explanation.

Rewind three days back to Monday when I saw the bus driver while I was working at the Y. She had mentioned that they were modifying her route since she had a lot of turnarounds which were making her late everyday. Never did she mention that Cameron would be taken off her bus, but she said to expect him to be picked up and dropped off a few minutes earlier. This new route was supposed to take effect on Wednesday.

Fast forward back to Thursday. Cameron was picked up by his normal bus in the morning, so surely he should be coming home on the same bus. Right?

WRONG!

Just as I’m getting to the bottom of The Hill, a bus stops at the house and Cameron gets off. I asked the driver why Cameron was on that bus and was told he had been moved. Why? I was going to have to get in touch with the school district for that information. Don’t worry…I will.

But before I could deal with the district I had to deal with my traumatized five year old. He got off the bus and immediately burst into tears. He liked his old bus, he had even made new friends and he didn’t want to be moved. Honestly, I can’t say that I blame the kid.

Here’s what I want to know, why wasn’t I notified BEFORE this change was made so that I could prepare Cameron for the change and make him a little more comfortable about it? Instead, my five year old was blindsided at the end of his school day, when the luggage tag he and Bill had laminated together to make it a little more special was cut off his bag and replaced with a hand written one. Minutes before Cameron was to board his transfer bus to the elementary school was when they decided to tell him that he wouldn’t be getting on the bus he’d been riding since the first day of school, that he had to ride a new bus with a new set of kids. Through his tears, he told me that yesterday morning he had told his friend Emmerson that he’d see her after school, and then he didn’t get on the bus with her. He was devastated he didn’t get to say goodbye to his friends. I would also like to know why they would make such a change in the middle of the day?  To have one bus pick him up and another drop him off is ridiculous.

Cameron has always been a fairly pleasant kid. Really he has only ever had two emotions, happy and angry. Never in his five short years have I ever seen him depressed, until now. The kid was actually depressed yesterday afternoon, bursting into tears suddenly or just sitting quietly with a sad face on. Cameron is a lot like me, he doesn’t do well with change. Once we get into our little routines and we are used to things, that’s how we like it to stay. I can still remember the anxiety when I was working and a manger would leave and I’d have to “break in” a new one. I hated it.

Anyway, my parents were able to get Cameron out of his funk by telling him that 42 (his new bus number) was 24 backwards, so really he was on the Jeff Gordon bus (his favorite race car driver). That made him feel better. Then they took his little bus toy and made it his bus, 42 Snake. Yes, the buses are not only numbered, but they have an animal too to help the little kids recognize their bus more easily.

So I contacted the second in command of the entire district to let him know what had happen and find out why these changes were executed in such an unprofessional manner. Apparently he’s as shocked as I am. He sent me an email back right away and said he would look into the situation further and get back to me…I’m still waiting. I hope for his sake he gets back to me before Monday rolls around and I’m forced to hunt him down in his office.

Stay tuned for more of the never ending Adventures in Bus Riding.