My moment of PANIC!

Last week I sent A off to school on the school bus. She goes to kindergarten in the afternoons and the school only has one half day kindergarten class (the others are full day) so when she goes to school, there are only kids in her class on the bus. After many tears and weeks of working through some of her fears, she is finally okay with riding the bus to school by herself.

The bus ride home is different. It is a different bus and driver and their are kids from k-12 on the bus with her. She has has a hard time because she is so little and her best friend is the little boy down the street named T so they get teased alot. Up until S switched schools, she was on the bus with A and she could "protect" her and help her deal with the different situations on the bus. When S switched schools, we decided that A would be okay still because she would just walk home with T and his older sister L and another neighbor girl named K.

Last week A's bus driver on the way home from school decided to move the bus stop. It is actually now about a block from my house so I am really happy with the switch. Before, the bus wouldn't come into our subdivision so it was dropping the kids off on the busy main street and then my kids were having to walk 1/2 mile home. Now she makes 3 stops in our subdivision and the kids can get off at the one that is closest to their house. Sounds great, right?

Well, on Wednesday, L and T did not ride the bus home and K walked to her mom's work after school, so A rode the bus home alone. She got very nervous that the driver would forget to drop her off, so she got off at the first stop in our subdivision. Then she walked all the way home alone and cried the whole way because she was so scared. Of course, I didn't know that she was doing this. I had no idea where she was when the bus came by and she didn't get off. But, a couple minutes later, she came walking down the street, so it all worked out okay. We talked about it and she agreed to stay on the bus next time until her correct stop. I reassured her that the bus driver would not forget her and if she did to just speak up and ask her to stop and let her off. Problem solved!

So, on Thursday, T's mother called and asked if they were at my house. I told her no. I hadn't seen the bus yet so I didn't think they were home yet. A couple minutes later I saw K's older sister, K, outside with her dad and so I asked her if she had riden the bus. She said that she had. Then I asked her if T and A had gotten of with her. She said no. She had not even seen them on the bus. I called T's mother and she had already contacted the bus and the bus driver confirmed that they had not gotten on the bus. They quickly checked the other 2 buses and they were not on those buses either. She called the school and their teacher said that they had left with the bus kids and so as far as she knew, they were on the bus. They checked the school grounds though, and no A and T. Okay, now what? They are 6 years old! Where could they have gone? and who was responsible for them?

Before I had much more time to panic, K's mother pulled into the driveway and out jumped A and K. She had just dropped T off at his house. I guess that as A and T were getting on the bus, K had grabbed them and told them that they were suppose to walk with her to her mother's work. They told her that they didn't know that but she said that she had called me and that I had given them permission to walk with her. So they did! K is 10 years old. The 3 of them walked 10+ blocks to K's mothers work. Our elementary school is not in the safest neighborhood to begin with and her mother works down town on Main Street which is NOT where I want any of my children to be, especially if I'm not with them. It's a little scarey down town. Her mother said that K had called her at lunch and asked if she could bring A to her work with her. Her mother told her that she had to call me first and get my permission. But when they walked in and had T with them, she panicked. She doesn't even know T's family and she knew that there was probably no way that his mother knew where he was so she brought them immediately home. It all worked out okay and the timing was perfect. A few more minutes and I would have had the cops looking for 2 missing children. I NEVER would have thought to check at K's mothers work. I don't even know her name or where she works. And if T hadn't gone with them, her mother would have assumed that I had given her permission to walk and she wouldn't have brought her home until after work, which would have been 6 o'clock. I can't even imagine not knowing where she was for 2 1/2 hours.

So, since it all worked out okay and nothing bad happened, I am trying to figure out how to protect my child. This was the neighbor girl, who meant no harm, but she convinced my child that she had my permission to take her somewhere. No one knew where she was, not the school, not the bus driver, not me!

Does this scare anyone else?

My solution: I did not send her to school on Friday and today I will take her to school, drop her off at her classroom door and pick her up myself from her classroom door.

What would you do?