Yesterday, I allowed my daughter to ride the school bus home for the very first time.  She has been begging me since her first day of Kindergarten and against my every instinct as a mother, I relented.  My boyfriend thinks I’m being overprotective and I’m not sure why.  I only had two meetings with her teacher, a consultation with a teacher-friend, and just one… OK, two meetings with the administration office at the school.  Her bus arrives in front of our house just after 3pm which is actually sooner than when we usually get home from the car rider line.  At 2pm I started checking out of the window – just in case.  I was a nervous wreck all afternoon.

Maybe I am a little overprotective, but I don’t care.  She’s my baby girl.  Too many parents aren’t protective enough over their children today!  Unfortunately, we don’t live in Mayberry anymore.  This world is a scary place.  If you don’t believe me, go to the sex offender registry and put in your address.  www.familywatchdog.us At my last house, we had one living RIGHT NEXT DOOR.  We moved. 

Maybe my biggest reason for being so protective is remembering what kind of kid I was.  If there was trouble to be had, I would find my way to the middle of it.  I wasn’t necessarily causing it, but was no doubt best friends with the instigators.  I loved the little trouble makers with good reason; I wanted to be a positive influence on them.  Nine months of rehab and counseling later, I saw the error of my ways.  Oh… I don’t want my kids to make the same mistakes that I did.

So now, beginning with riding the bus in Kindergarten I have realized what kind of parent I am going to be.  I only thought my mother was out of control for not letting me spend the night with families she had never met.  I’m going to make my mother look like a mad woman.

So how did the first day of bus riding go?  I’ll let the picture speak for itself:

Note that there are two little boys and THAT’S ALL.  Like a true PTA mom, I was clicking away with the camera to capture my daughter stepping proudly off the bus for the first time when, to my horror, I realized she wasn’t there.  Out loud, I shouted, “And this is why you shouldn’t let six year olds ride the bus!”  I dialed the school and took off through the neighborhood with my son in my wake. 

I met her coming up our street with a little girl she met on the bus. “Mom!  Lauren lives in our neighborhood and I wanted to see where she lives!  Can I go to her house to play???”

And so it begins…

Thankfully, she is one piece.  She doesn’t smell like cigarettes.  She doesn’t appear to be high or drunk and she hasn’t yet dropped the F-Bomb.  I hope she enjoyed her first and last ride on the school bus as there isn’t enough Xanax in the world.