Liam is taking the bus to school for the first time tomorrow. This is a big step for me. I'm not sure it's quite such a big step for him, but it's definitely a step.
He's been nagging me to let him do it for the past year, because one of his best friends at school takes the bus, and gets on only two stops after ours. It's a school bus, so although I gather it goes past a bunch of other schools as well, it ends up at Liam's. And our bus stop? It's about a four minute walk from our place. In the morning there is one street to cross (a fairly big one though), but in the afternoon there're none.
Then again, I don't think we'll be braving bussing home for a while yet. I'd definitely want to wait at the stop for him, and the mother of his friend who takes the bus told me it can be up to 15 minutes late - which means standing at the bus stop, almost nine months pregnant, in 30+ degree heat, with Mikaela, for maybe 15 minutes. There's not even a bench there. No thanks. That's something Chris can maybe do with him after the baby's born and Chris is on leave.
The point of this exercise, aside from the fact that he's been begging me to let him take the bus for a year, is that after the baby is born (and after Chris goes back to work), it would be nice if Liam could take the bus in at least one direction a few times a week. So that not every single nap the baby tries to have is either interrupted by school pick up/drop off or ruined by a sleep in the car.
On the other hand, I don't want to be completely absent from school myself, especially at pick up. There is a great community there and we often stay after school for half an hour or more for a play and a chat. And Margie, Liam's teacher, encourages us to have them show us their work from time to time, which I also like to do.
But aside from all, that, last year I just didn't really feel ready to let my little boy get on that bus and just trust that it would be all okay, not seeing him again until school pick up over 6 hours later. Actually I'm still not sure I'm quite ready for that. It helps to know that his friend will be on the bus though (and they're going to try to get going early enough to walk up to our stop tomorrow, which will certainly make Liam happy). And his mum told me there don't seem to be any bullies on the bus at all, at least as far as she can tell.
So it's all good and I'm sure will be fine. In fact, I suspect once we get used to it we're going to love it, even if it is just for the morning trip. But I did tell his teacher today that he'd be taking the bus tomorrow morning, and to please call me if he didn't show up! Just your average neurotic parent...
