First Day of Kindergarten – Transportation Trauma

I’m happy to say that TJ had a great first day of kindergarten. I’m unhappy to say that I was fraught with unnecessary anxiety that was more than just the natural “my baby’s going to kindergarten!” angst I was expecting. And it’s all because of the buses.

TJ is in the afternoon kindergarten class – full day kindergarten still isn’t mandatory in New York State – so his bus was supposed to pick him up and take him to school around 11:30 this morning. Since it was the first day of kindergarten, we expected that the bus might be a little bit late. There would be lots of other parents and grandparents taking pictures of their darling children getting on the bus, just like we were planning to do. So TJ ran around in the grass, jumped up and down, and asked impatiently when the bus would be coming. He was so excited!

Ten minutes past his scheduled pickup time, I because to get a little worried. But we hadn’t seen his particular bus drive by yet, so I stomped down that anxiety. Then we saw it… His bus number, with the sign depicting the little picture that would identify his bus for him in case the actual bus needed service and they had to send one with a different number. And it drove right past us.

Aside from TJ, there was one mother, one father, two grandmas, a grandpa, and a great-grandma waiting to see him off. We were all trying to wave the bus down when it didn’t look like she was going to stop for him. The bus driver waved back and kept going.

I got on the phone with transportation while my dad tried to see if the bus was going to turn around and come back for TJ. (It didn’t.) The woman at transportation told me that the bus tried to pick him up at home instead of at my mother-in-law’s house. I had specifically filled out the form saying that, if he was in the PM class, he’d need to be picked up and dropped off at her house because she is his childcare.

Tom and I drove him to school.

Thankfully, TJ was not upset about this development. He held our hands and skipped down the sidewalk as we walked him to the front of the school where his teacher was greeting the other kids as they got off their buses. The kindergarteners all line up outside and walk down to their classroom together with their teachers. We got hugs and kisses, and we left. TJ was fine.

I was upset. I got robbed of my First Day of Kindergarten Getting on the Bus photo and video. I can’t get that back. But I contented myself with the fact that I could get my pictures taken tomorrow when they pick him up at the proper bus stop.

I wasn’t expecting more drama after school, especially since the woman at transportation had confirmed for me earlier that he was going to be dropped off in the right place.

Kitty and I waited at the bus stop for TJ, arriving there 10 minutes before his scheduled drop-off time of 2:29 though, I expected he might be a bit late, especially since it was the first time the bus driver would be dropping off the kindergarteners. (The older kids started last week.)

Fifteen minutes past the time he should’ve gotten off the bus, I started getting antsy. At 20 minutes, I asked Twitter how long I should wait before calling the bus garage. I texted Tom, and he told me to wait until 3:00. I started freaking out around 2:55, so Kitty called tranportation for me.

She was on hold when I finally saw his bus coming down the road, so she hung up the phone. I watched it slow down to stop at the other entrance to her apartment complex, but it only hestitated and didn’t let anyone off. It showed no signs of stopping again as it neared where Kitty and I were standing at the main entrance, and I waved at it frantically as I verified the correct bus number, the picture in the window… and TJ’s little face staring out the window from the front seat as the bus drove right past us.

I got right back on my phone and called up transportation again.

“Today is my son’s first day of kindergarten, and I saw his face as the bus drove right past me without dropping him off!”

I got put on hold while the dispatcher tried to find out what was going on. I heard her say to someone else, “I’ve got Mrs. Gleason on the phone right now.” I’m guessing she was talking to either the bus driver or another dispatcher who was talking to the bus driver. Several tense minutes later, I was assured that the bus would be coming back “to drop Mr. Thomas off to you.” I thanked her, and she hung up before I could say anything else.

I should’ve called back to get an ETA. Every time I heard a diesel engine, I’d try to see if it was a school bus about to round the corner. Sometimes it was, but it wasn’t his.

Kitty told me that it was fun to watch some of the men driving by and checking me out, although she called after them that I’m a married woman. (I am married to her son, after all.) I did get a chuckle out of it when one guy nearly went off the road turning into the apartment complex. He wasn’t very smooth. I needed the laugh so I could stop freaking out so much.

Finally…over an hour later than he was supposed to be dropped off, the bus appeared. The bus driver apologized to me. He said he called TJ’s name, but he didn’t hear him answer back, so he didn’t stop. The guy looked like he’d been around the block a few times (pun intended) so I wondered why he wouldn’t think that a first-day kindergartener might be a little shy, and that if there were grown women standing at the bus stop where he was supposed to get off, wouldn’t you stop anyways just to make sure? Bus drivers aren’t allowed to drop off kindergarteners without a parent or guardian at the bus stop. What did he think we were standing there for?

But TJ wasn’t freaking out or anything when he got off the bus. He just seemed tired…and thirsty.

TJ had a great day at school. The only things he told me were that he sang his ABCs, listened to a Wiggles song, and made a new friend named Danny. Danny is an older kid who helped him find his bus. (TJ has to take a shuttle bus to another bus since Kitty’s apartment complex is located in another elementary school’s territory.) I remember being a bus helper for the kindergarteners when I was in elementary school.

He told Tom more about his day later on. His favorite parts of the day were snack time and reading books, one of which was Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom. I was happy to hear he liked snack time the best, because he thanked me for the note I put in his snack bag that said Mommy loves you. He also told him about his teacher’s “warm fuzzies jar.” Apparently, they put cotton balls in the jar when they follow the rules. I’m not entirely sure how it works, but I’m hoping his teacher will put it in her weekly note home at the end of the week.

I had far more angst than I needed to have today, but I’m so glad that TJ only had positive feelings about his first day of kindergarten!

Christina Gleason (976 Posts)

That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.