Bus Start

I am LOVING the school bus!

For years I have been driving the kids to school either myself or with a car pool, and it has made sense because due to the fact that we are a regional district, bus routes can last for upwards of an hour and you have to get your kid on the bus at dawn.

But when they sent out the bus routes this year, I noticed that one near our house (I say near, it's still too far to walk, I have to drive Charlie to the bus stop) is really a straight shot to the school, traveling the same path that I would if I drove him.  So what is the point?

I just didn't expect how much time I would gain!  Yesterday morning was his first day and so I sat in the car with him waiting for the bus.  This morning when we drove up there, he said, okay, I'll see you later.

I asked him if he wanted me to wait with him.  He gave me a "don't be ridiculous" look, and I said well fine!  Have a great day.  (There are two other boys waiting as well).  I was home by 7:20.  I had invested exactly four minutes to driving him to school.  How heavenly is that?

SO heavenly that I had time to blog!  Yahooo!

When Maddie starts school after next week, my plan is to drop off Charlie, then swing back here and pick her up, drop her off and be done with driving by quarter of 8.  Again, another yahoo!

When I had told Charlie that he would be taking the bus this year, I explained that it was absolutely silly for me to follow the same route that the bus did -- that it was a huge waste of gas, which is expensive and a soon-to-be non-existent commodity.  Why not try to save some for necessary trips in the future?  

Does every drop count?  Well of course!  And I think some how we need to get it into our kids heads that they need to help out, it's their future too.

I remember a co-worker telling me that it was always his kids who clued him into what was politically correct at the time.  He said it was his children that freaked out when he threw garbage out the car window.  Apparently it had been considered no big deal to do such a thing, but then kids went to school and learned that littering was BAD, and they transferred that lesson onto their parents.

I remember when Hallie would just glare at me with absolute disgust when she would come upon me brushing my teeth with the water running.  She would slam it off and say in a firm tone that I was WASTING WATER.  Well geesh.  Fine.  To this day if I leave the water running for a few seconds I am consumed with guilt and see her little squinted eyed face glaring at me.

Our lessons come from where ever they will, but one thing here is guaranteed:  The schools will not be teaching the children how to conserve gasoline.  I believe the public school agenda is far more scarier than anyone realizes, but that is another blog.  But the point is, what the general consensus is for these students is to teach them how to be stupid consumers.  And explaining that the price of oil will continue to rise would be detrimental to those who benefit from the price of oil continuing to rise.

So these messages are no longer being conveyed through our children -- and we are complacent, and they are clue less and we continue to believe that nothing will ever change.  And the only way to change is to initiate it, and while it is a small drop in the bucket, Charlie on a bus is a start.

And I gain more time ... and that ...

is priceless.