The school year began today. We now have a Kindergartener and a 2nd Grader. The Kerr family does much better with a summertime schedule. Stay up a little later, sleep in a bit, spend the mornings strolling around the house in our Jammies, graze on waffles and poptarts at a leisurely pace. ‘Leisurely pace’ hardly describes mornings at the Kerr house during the school year.
But we managed to get our two youngsters off to school. We all walked together (minus pregnant Kristie) and found the new kindergarten class. I was not one of the many parents who had tear filled eyes in the Kindergarten wing of our Elementary School.
I managed to get a quick trip to cub foods in ( I had the day off from work) before I had to pick Charlie up at 11am. I strolled in to the school at 11 and Charlie’s teacher (we’ll call her Miss M) was standing there smiling. She said “I had it down that Charlie was getting on the ESCE Bus for the afternoon” I said “No, that starts next week” (Charlie will be in special ed for two afternoons a week starting next week). So we strolled out to the short bus to retrieve Charlie, but he wasn’t there. Miss M said “they must have caught the error and taken him back inside the school” So back inside we went. Still no sign of Charlie, but there were a couple cases of parents who forgot to pick up a student and other students who got on the wrong bus.
We wandered around asking different people if they knew where Charlie was… Finally one of the kindergarten aides said “which one is Charlie?” Miss M pointed at me and said “Charlie looks just like him”. The aide said “Oh yah, he got on the big bus”. Miss M said “The BIG BUS?!” “Where might the Big Bus be heading?” I asked.
Miss M went to the front office to call the bus line and let the bus driver know of the mistake while I hung out in the hall with the aides. One of whom looked at me re-assuringly and said “don’t worry, he’s fine”. I told her that I was not in the least stressed by this situation. I said “If you sent Charlie home with some guy in a conversion van... we might have a little stress”.
I really wasn’t stressed. There are plenty of people in the world that live each day wound up pretty tight… I’m not one of those.
Miss M thanked me for being calm. Apparently not all parents are calm in this situation. I told her “If Charlie’s pregnant mommy was here there might be a tear or two.”
I’m sure it’s crazy these days with kindergarteners getting on buses for rides home, buses for special ed, buses for day care. Kids have different destinations for different days of the week. When I was in Kindergarten, kids either walked home, or got on a school bus. Of course this was Canada where we'd sip on Maple Syrup, speak french while discussing the benefits of our National Health Care System.
Anyway, the bus showed up and off came un-phased Charlie followed by another boy. All the Kindergarten teachers and aides looked at this other boy, sank their shoulders and asked “Now who is this?”
Here’s to another school year.
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