Being the private school snob that I am, I never lived close to my school, we had to drive, my parents drove me to school every morning until I was old enough to drive myself. (What a glorious day that must have been for my parents!) I never paid an ounce of attention to cross walks, how many people were riding bikes, HOW OLD the children riding bikes were, etc.
Present day. . .I drive my Kindergartener to school EVERY DAY. We go through the drop off line, he gets out, looks back and waves (that is going to end so soon, so I eat it up and wave like a crazy psycho back), and hurries off to class. I watch him go through the gates, and I know other than holding his hand and walking him to his door (which there are some parents who do, but that is teaching ZERO independence) I did the best I could in making sure he got to school safely!
Then I drive back to my house and see OODLES AND OODLES AND OODLES of children (all age ranges) walking and riding their bike. Today I saw a girl who looked like she was in 5th grade carrying this HUGE project, all dressed up in a skirt and dress shoes, walking to school. The other day I saw a girl riding her bike while balancing her violin on her lap. What are the parents doing that they can't drive their kid to school on the day the student has music or a special project due? I would like to think that the answer is working, and for this I am INCREDIBLY thankful that I am able to stay home. I may not like it every day. I may go to bed almost daily thinking I did a terrible job. I may not go on fancy vacations or drive a nice car, but I know that if my kids need a ride to school, I am available. I am pretty sure that if my kids walked to school, I would have to call the office every morning and make sure that they made it.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Who Are All These Walkers?
Posted by Colleen at 7:00 AM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comments:
Ok, so Mike and I were 'semi' walkers. In the beginning while my mom was still working, we would get dropped off like a half mile from our house by the SSJ bus and then walk home together. UNTIL, one day Mike thought it was a great idea to go to the nearby park instead of walking home, so of course I followed like the good little sister I was. Well, sometimes my mom would pick us up on our 'designated walking route' if she was on her way home at the same time. Low and behold, we were not on our route and we were not at home...uh you know how she got with the 'Marys football game fiascal'..imagine when we were like 8 and 10 years old. I believe police were being called while we walked in after spending an hour or so swinging at the park and she drove around and called every person we knew. Mike was grounded for the idea and I was grounded for following. Lesson learned: You can't win being a leader or a follower! LOL And..I think that was one of the last times we ever walked home from the bus stop again!
Post a Comment