Middle school kids incapable of using the bus?

[Anonymous]

I have a mom friend/acquaintance who refuses to let her kids ride the bus. They don’t even know which bus to take or where their stop is. Today, it seems she’s in a bind and needs someone to get her middle school son home. I told her I’d have no problem at all with getting the key from her, waiting at his bus stop and helping him in the house before I have to get back home for my own kids. But because of the above, that isn’t possible. She wants me to drive 20 minutes to the school, be there 20 minutes early to wait in the pickup line, and drive him home. Even if I could have made it work (I can’t with my kids),I won’t do that; this is why kids should at least know how to utilize their school bus!

Am I right?

[Anonymous]

If her child not riding the bus is that much of a priority for her then she should have made it a priority to find someone that lives close to her that also picks up everyday. It isn't fair of her to make this your problem.

[Anonymous]

Can’t you just help her out without judging? Maybe her child has been bullied on the bus before. If you don’t want to help her, just decline.

[Anonymous]

1. Perhaps he needs to have an authorization to ride his neighborhood bus and it's not a day-of kind of thing? These days schoolbuses are packed. The first day of school some kids sat on the bus FLOOR before they tweaked the rounds. Not safe.

2. There are a ton of buses and a ton of kids, and some buses leave very quickly after school ends, so if the kid has never taken the bus before,chances are high he's going to miss it! It happens to my son, who has taken the same bus for THREE years. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Many middle school kids take city busses and the metro on their own. Not being able to take the suburban school bus is a red flag.

[Anonymous]

I think it's kind of crazy, but honestly, if one of my friends needed a favor that would take an hour and I had the ability to do it, I'd do it for them. I mean, at this point, she is in a bind. The kids don't know how to take the bus and it's not like she can teach it before they need it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's kind of crazy, but honestly, if one of my friends needed a favor that would take an hour and I had the ability to do it, I'd do it for them. I mean, at this point, she is in a bind. The kids don't know how to take the bus and it's not like she can teach it before they need it.

She can absolutely teach her child how to use the bus if he needs it. Are you nuts? How does any kid learn how to use the bus? It’s called PLANNING.

[Anonymous]

My kids have always been driven to school, and they mostly take the bus back home. They have always been picked up and driven back home from the bus-stop. Should they be able to use the bus? Absolutely. All kids should know the bus number, their busstop and how to walk back home. All kids should also have a cell phone and house keys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a mom friend/acquaintance who refuses to let her kids ride the bus. They don’t even know which bus to take or where their stop is. Today, it seems she’s in a bind and needs someone to get her middle school son home. I told her I’d have no problem at all with getting the key from her, waiting at his bus stop and helping him in the house before I have to get back home for my own kids. But because of the above, that isn’t possible. She wants me to drive 20 minutes to the school, be there 20 minutes early to wait in the pickup line, and drive him home. Even if I could have made it work (I can’t with my kids),I won’t do that; this is why kids should at least know how to utilize their school bus!

Am I right?

Should middle-school students know how to use their school bus? Yes, I think so. (I also think that a middle-school student should know how to get from their school bus to their residence and let themselves in.) But that's not the question your friend is asking. She's asking you to go pick him up and drive him home. You can't do it. So tell her that you can't do it.

You could also tell her that if she gets in a bind again, you'll be happy to help him from the school bus to the house.

But really, she's not asking for your opinion about bus-riding, and unless she's a really good friend, it's generally prudent to avoid offering unasked-for advice (except on DCUM!).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids have always been driven to school, and they mostly take the bus back home. They have always been picked up and driven back home from the bus-stop. Should they be able to use the bus? Absolutely. All kids should know the bus number, their busstop and how to walk back home. All kids should also have a cell phone and house keys.

Nope they should not.

If a kid can't handle getting from the school bus to home you've got bigger problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's kind of crazy, but honestly, if one of my friends needed a favor that would take an hour and I had the ability to do it, I'd do it for them. I mean, at this point, she is in a bind. The kids don't know how to take the bus and it's not like she can teach it before they need it.

She can absolutely teach her child how to use the bus if he needs it. Are you nuts? How does any kid learn how to use the bus? It’s called PLANNING.

Didn't OP say it's for this afternoon? All can be done at this point is for the parent to talk to the front office and plead with them to help her son get on the right bus. It's something that's done for all students the first week of school, and perhaps for new students coming in mid-year.

However, perhaps her son has special needs. I think OP should do the favor and then talk to the mother.

[Anonymous]

I live in a major city and my DD takes buses all over the place no problem.

But when I was a child living in the suburbs, I had NO IDEA which bus to get on after middle school ended. I knew the bus stop near my house, but getting on the right bus to get home was a huge problem. I couldn't figure out how other kids knew. To this day I still don't know. I basically loitered near the buses until I saw someone who lived near me, and then stalked them onto the right bus to get home each day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in a major city and my DD takes buses all over the place no problem.

But when I was a child living in the suburbs, I had NO IDEA which bus to get on after middle school ended. I knew the bus stop near my house, but getting on the right bus to get home was a huge problem. I couldn't figure out how other kids knew. To this day I still don't know. I basically loitered near the buses until I saw someone who lived near me, and then stalked them onto the right bus to get home each day.

The buses display bus numbers. And generally line up in the same order. This was true even in the days of the Late Pleistocene North American megafauna, when I went to middle school/high school.

[Anonymous]

Look OP.

You can decline to help because you don't have the time.

But it's pretty shitty of you to decline because you're judging this family on bus-IQ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in a major city and my DD takes buses all over the place no problem.

But when I was a child living in the suburbs, I had NO IDEA which bus to get on after middle school ended. I knew the bus stop near my house, but getting on the right bus to get home was a huge problem. I couldn't figure out how other kids knew. To this day I still don't know. I basically loitered near the buses until I saw someone who lived near me, and then stalked them onto the right bus to get home each day.

The buses display bus numbers. And generally line up in the same order. This was true even in the days of the Late Pleistocene North American megafauna, when I went to middle school/high school.

Unless you were there the first week of school when they explained it, it looks chaotic and scary. I took the Paris metro as a kid. The suburban school buses feel more complex to me