Bus Stop Question

[mjkacmom]

You are joking right? Kindergarten, really?

I walked to kindergarten by myself, a 15 minute walk, every day. Granted, I don't let my kids walk in kindergarten (1st grade, with old kids, however ds11 decided to be a patrol this year, and has to go early, so I guess I'm walking my kids again, only because of ds6, who can't be trusted). Around here, by 4th grade, kids would be mortified if their parents walked them to school.

 

[squirrlygirl]

We live 1/5 of a mile from the bus stop. The bus stop is on a rural road, but our road is part of a subdivision. This year my middle two will walk home by themselves (they will be in 2nd and 3rd grades, and do NOT have to cross the road) but I will take them to the bus stop in the morning. Most days it is a group of 6 or 7 kids that they will be walking with.

The bus stop right before ours had a strange man in a car pull up last year (middle-schoolers waiting at about 6:50 am) and get out and approach the kids. A mom was watching out her window and ran out and asked him what he was doing. He took off, but the police were stationed at each end of the road for a few days after that just in case. His license plate was not a match to a registered vehicle.

 

[*BTMRR*]

I walk with my kids (elementary age) to the bus stop most days not so much because of fears of abductions but because the behavior of kids at the bus stop can be pretty bad if a parent is not right there supervising (one kid throwing another's backpack out into the busy street to force the other kid to run out and get it, kids horsing around too much, throwing trash on the ground, that kind of thing). Quite a few kids use this stop and I feel like SOMEONE needs be there to keep them in line. They're quiet and sweet if there's a parent standing there looking sternly at them!
When my kids do walk to the bus stop without me they're told to stay together. I feel like there's some safety in numbers when it comes to stranger abductions like Jaycee's.

 

[Becky2005]

My grade school kids are walkers/car riders depending on the weather. I walked them all through 5th grade (although they always had a younger sibling too). I don't mind & I can. I'm not the only parent either -- 1/2 the time waiting for pick-up was social time for us parents. Once they are in Middle School (6th grade), then I don't walk them. I might drive them if the weather is bad & I have time.

Last year my then 3rd grader rode the bus because our school was under construction and they bussed across town to a school that was not being used that year -- I walked him every day, it was down the street and around the corner. I was not the only parent there. I also walked down there to pick him up. I probably didn't have to but I asked him a few times and he always pouted and said "but I like you there"...it wasn't any extra work for me to do so (other than bundling up his little brother in the winter). I should also add on the way home he was the *only* one who turned the corner and walked down our street. The other kids lived on the street the bus picked up on, so he would have been walking by himself on a fairly busy street.

There were 2 other parents that were there every day in the morning and a couple more that would come on & off. It actually made it nice because they have older kids in my older kids grades so we got a lot of info on different things happening that way such as "did you hear they changed the time for the choir concert tonight due to track?" "No, thanks for letting me know" those type of conversations.

It also worked out well because they switched my 7th graders bus stop this year and it is at one of the houses of the mom's I talked with last year. I was able to show him where the new stop was and feel totally comfortable having him go there.

I don't walk the kids to the bus stop in 6th grade & beyond -- other than the 1st day of 6th grade (I'm not the only one that does that the first day. 6th grade here is the beginning of Middle School so for most of the kids it's the very first time they have ridden the bus to school. A lot of 6th grade parents do that). Now, depending on timing/weather, I've been known to drive the kids to the bus stop -- even my Sophmore got rides the first 2 days of school this year since it was pouring out. She had already told me there was no way I was walking her (I hadn't planned on it!) but she had no qualms about me driving her in the rain so she didn't have to stand there getting wet before the bus came.

I'm still dropping off the grade schooler when it's time for my middle schooler to go to the bus stop this year..so not only does he walk on his own, he's home alone before it's time for him to go.

This year I have one in Kindergarten and I have no choice but to walk/drive him home. They won't release Kindergarteners other than to a parent. He does get the bus to school but all K stops are in front of their houses since we only have 1/2 day Kindergarten here, there is no one else on the bus except those going to Kindergarten. In DS case this year, there is only 1 afternoon Kindergarten class, so not only are all the kids in Kindergarten, they are all in his class.

 

[taximomfor4]

I never walked them. I can see the bus stop, at an angle, if I look out my front door a certain way...so I have always let them go alone, and just sort of kept an eye and ear open.

I even started letting them walk to school last year. They were just-6,8,and just-10. The school is down the road 4 stopsigns (intersections), and turn left at the crossing guard. Really, the most worrisome part is that there are no sidewalks in our neighborhood.

 

[golfgal]

I am not trying to call you old....lol, BUT things were different back then. My DS is starting kindergarten at the elementary school that I went to, this year. We are walkers, so I will be walking him. That being said, our district has a policy that all kindergarten children must have a parent/guardian waiting for them at the stop or they will not be released from the bus driver's care. I am in 100% total agreement with that policy, and in fact would rather it include 1st and 2nd grade like your district. Better safe than sorry IMO.

Not really-kids were molested, abducted, picked on and bullied back then too-it just didn't make headline news.

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

My second grader is walked to the end of our driveway to the bus by his brother or sister. We have a long driveway and the bus comes around a curve. I don't know when I will have them stop. Not this year.

 

[CJ's Mommy]

Hahahaha...you are NOT old!! You know what I mean, though? Things are just different now. I think we know more, and therefore people are more cautious. I just had this discussion with my DH, after seeing the story on the news about Jaycee lee D
uggard. Like I said before, we are walkers and are about 2 1/2 blocks from the school (k-5) and I told DH that I will be picking DS up/walking him until he gets a bus in 6th grade!!! What do they call us these days, helicopter moms??? I don't care!!!! Maybe I'll feel different in a few years, who knows. But right now, I just see my sweet innocent little angel and can't imagine letting him walk to school alone!! Your DH and I are on the same page!

Not really-kids were molested, abducted, picked on and bullied back then too-it just didn't make headline news.

Golfgal~ Read my follow up post to the one you quoted. I am in total agreement with you that kids were abducted, molested and all of that years ago. That's not what I meant when I said that things were different back then. What I mean is that we KNOW more now and for that reason, parents are more cautious.

To say, "Well, I walked to school by myself in Kindergarten and I'm fine" is like saying "We didn't have to use car seats/booster seats back then, and our kids made it!" Bottom line is that we know more now so we make the adjustments.

FWIW, my DH walked to school by himself in Kindergarten and had to pass a playground on the way. Some days he decided it would be more fun to play at the playground all day rather than go to school! He would hide behind the playground equipment until he saw his dad's car pass by on his way to work!

 

[PatsGirl]

Our bus stop is four houses down on a pretty quiet street and both kids walked themselves to the stop from first grade on. I can see the stop from my front windows and when they were younger would watch them walk and wait for the bus to appear (but they didn't know that, lol). If the weather is poor, I would/will drive and wait with them. I remember going to school wet from standing in the rain waiting for a bus

 

[hereyago]

From K through 3, I would drive her because she had the before / after school program.
4th grade, she asks if she can walk to school, because we are within walking distance. So she walked 4th and 5th grade.
This new school year, she will be going to different school and riding the bus. Her bus stop will be out of view for me, but I am not going to drive every day and stand with her. Her friend who will be going to school with her and going to a public school for the first time, isn't allowed to walk to the bus stop unless my DD is walking that day. So if my DD is sick,her Mom will drive her to the bus stop, which isn't even 3 minutes away.
As my DD gets older, I have to trust I did a good job teaching her and have to let her spread her wings sort of speak.
I saw a segment on 20/20 last night about this lady who had 2 boys in college, call them several times a day, proof read their work, set up their classes and one of the guys was saying she was like a secretary for them. This woman needs to get a life. But they said that alot of colleges and universites have seen an influx of helicopter parents so they have parent orientation, etc.