Do you pick your kids up from school?

Thats nice. I do not think I would mind as much if we lived close by enough to walk. There really would be no wait and you could get exercise. I bet the cold and rainy days are not much fun though.

No the cold and rainy days are horrible, oh the amount of times I have been absolutely soaked. I love it if it absolutely pours down on a friday afternoon simply because my hubby fetches them in the car as he finishes work early. It always makes me feel like I tricked the weather!!

4 yr old kindergarten is only 2 days a week. That is cool. When my son went through pre-K 4 he went 5 days a week for shorter days 8:30-2.

wow 5 days but that is almost as same as school hours and kindergarden is so they can get used to school not to be the same as school. No my son goes 2 days 9:30 ro 2:30 some places have 3 days (half days) which is buisness if you ask me. Because they can only fit 2 grups a year if they do 2 days but they can fit 3 groops if they do half day that way the automaticly get 1/3 more money.

I drop my son off in the morning because I have to be at work for 7:30. This is something we started maybe 2 months ago. I really don't care for it though because we are always running late.

My MIL use to have that problem with my BIL, so is so happy he can drive himself now. There were weeks where he would miss the bus 2-3 times. At the time she was a bus driver and on the road so she couldn't just bring him.

That is a pretty big difference. I can usually get home for 3:50. The bus - on a good day - gets here by 4:20. To me that is too much time spent on a bus.

LOL, I did that the other day. Definitely a good use of time.

We don't live far from school, just far enough that the kids have to take the bus. Most of the parents around here that I know make their kids take the bus. I feel bad having my son do so. They get out at 3:35 and their bus doesn't get to our complex (we are 10 minutes max from the school) until 4:20, sometimes not even until 5! This is one of those stuck up schools (which, in a way a am very glad for because parents care about their kids, making it the best elementary school within 3 parishes) so parents don't talk to each other that much.

The busses here are not that bad, just the driver don't run for just one school. They often have 3 schools they drive for so they are on tight scheduled. I believe elementary is the last group to get out for the day.

Same here. The busses here pick up students who go to the elementary and the high school all at once, which is not good for our little ones. They learn too many bad things from the older kids alot of times. They also feel like they are scared or unsafe with all of the growup kids on the bus. My daughter has to change busses twice before coming home. It is crazy. she rides the bus to the elementary school in the morning, then gets on another bus to go to the high school. then she gets on the bus in the evenings from the high school and again has to change busses when she gets to the elementary school.

I hate waiting in the line. When the weather gets a bit warmer, he is back on the bus. I need my afternoons to get things done.

now that my children are in their teens, i kinda miss the days were i have to bring them to school. they were so cute back then. lol. you can see their happy faces when they see me at school. now they are surprise when they see me at school.

What kind of fan fiction do you write?

This is our 3rd year at this school. The first year there were 2 parents that use to stand out for the bus in the evenings, last year there was one, now no one stands out because all the kids are 2nd, 34rd and 4th graders. With this driver you never know when she is coming, could be waiting 30 minutes outside. The school also has a bad habit of if they do call (when they decide to call) about the bus, they call one number - usually the house - and leave a message.

Thats good you get a call though, we don't when the bus is late and we have stood outside for 30 minutes or more when its late. I have had to call the school several times to find out what has happened. I think its because the school bus is used by other schools and when they run late, everyone else is late. The majority of kids that catch our bus are kindergarten and 1st grade so you often see at least one parent from each family waiting outside :)

Besides carpool the kids can be walkers. The wait there seems to be just as bad because a lot of parents pick up their kids. So there are a ton of parents competing for a handful of parking spaces.

lol, I wish I could make them walk! We live over 3 miles from the school, and we are on a busy street that has no sidewalks, and we are in Los Angeles. LOL That should say it all...

Even showing up at the last minute there is a wait. A lot of parents show up right when the bell rings all the way to 10 minutes after the bell rings.

Yes it is, but I don't get the paper daily. I try to do something productive but I find that time of day to be quite tiring.

The gas I put out going to pick up is very minimal. With running errands, bring him to school in the morning before I go to work, driving home from work and picking him up from school daily I go through a tank of gas a month. Even if he liked riding the bus, the amount of time they spend on the bus - at least 30 minutes - seems like such a waste of these kids time.

LOL I completely understand. What they do at his school is right when the bell rings they change where the first car can be, so the line moves up about 10 cars...then you have to wait until the kids start getting out.

I really don't mind doing it, but I get off of work at 1:30 so I feel like I could really find abetter use of the time other than sitting in a line of cars.

I really wish we could rely on our buses or I would make my son ride the bus to and from school. There have been quite a few times this school year that the bus has not run. In fact, right after Christmas break the weather was really bad and I didn't want him walking to and from the bus stop so I started picking him up, then one day I asked him to take the bus, the bus didn't run LOL To make matters worse, the school called the parents (which they normally don't you just show up wondering why it is 5pm and your kid isn't home) and told us to pick the kids up in the car pool line, but the didn't bother to tell the kids.....

My son has ridden the bus up until I started working part time, even then he was still taking the bus. The car line- to me at least - is a huge hassle. I went to Catholic school and we lived about 5 blocks away, my mom had to come pick us up - too close for the bus.