Reply to Why can't kids take the bus ?

Forum Index » Tweens and Teens

Reply to "Why can't kids take the bus ?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DH here.

My wife has always insisted on driving our kids to school. Last one is a junior in high school. On the days that my wife works it is expected that I will drive my DD to school often ironically behind the school bus that drove past our house that would have picked up my DD to take her to school.

I will admit part of my frustration comes down to values and equal treatment. My DW will look at me and tell me to get over it if I complain about my extended commute or any other frustrating aspect of adult life but we can't teach our kids grit and resilience by taking the bus. My DW does not get  that my frustration is about values - how can we teach them the value of the work when Dad is supposed to interrupt work to take them to school behind the very bus that we pay to drive them. I try and tell my wife that we need to raise resilient kids instead we cater to every whim. I realize I sound whiny and perhaps self indulgent [b]but heck I took two city buses to school and two home[/b].

And I'm not the only one - there's a cop directing traffic at the school drop off zone as no one takes the bus ?

I don't get it but I don't think as parents we are helping. [/quote]

I remember those days well, OP.  :)

It's shocking to me when I see how scared some parents can be, because if you live in NYC and attend public school, you start taking the subway ALONE starting in middle school (11 years old).

That's right, every kid in public school starts taking the subway by themselves in 6th grade.
The NYC school system has no school buses (unless you're counting public mass transit as school buses, lol) and while every student in elementary school can easily walk to and from school from home (the elementary's are always just a few blocks from each student's home) middle school are most definitely NOT.

Taking the subway starting at 11 years old was a great learning experience, it made me tough, perceptive & made me very intuitive. It was a great way to learn street smarts (plus the train is filled with a couple of hundred other kids going to middle school at the same time, so there was never any real danger).

By the time I was 12 or 13, I was confident that I could handle almost any situation that was thrown at me, or at least act like I could (which is half the battle). I also knew what to do, how to act and more importantly how to react so I would never, ever become a target.

My kids?  Not so much, lol. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics