The Snowy Friday I Hijacked My Kids Off the Bus

Just as it was predicted, the snow began to fall in Georgia around 1:30 p.m. on Friday. I was thrilled to be able to leave work at about 3:30. After I stopped by the grocery store it occurred to me that my two middle schoolers would be on the bus near home in a few minutes. Perhaps I could intervene and get them off the bus before their actual stop.

One of the fights I have not yet fought is why this bus route goes within a mile of our neighborhood, but continues on for a few miles to take two sisters home who live out of the way compared to the rest. In fact one day my 8th grader was motivated to get home prior to 5:00 so he hopped off the bus (did tell the bus driver) at another neighborhood and borrowed a bike from a friend who lives near that stop and beat his 6th grade brother by 30 minutes.

So I had the idea to wait in this other neighborhood, I'd see the bus, the boys would see me and tell the driver they had to get off and they'd get home sooner to play in the snow. The boys don’t have cell phones.

As I am waiting in the neighborhood I called my Hubs and told him my plan and he said he’d be some soon with the Youngest son. It suddenly occurred to me that there was no snow build up on the busier road I had just been on, but in the neighborhood (which has hills) the street could no longer be seen. Well, here comes the bus but I was not in a good spot to be seen and I thought about hopping out and running over to the bus’s door but knew the boys would die of embarrassment so after its first stop I followed the bus in my car. And followed it. And followed it all through this curving, hilly neighborhood. And it keeps stopping and other kids -- but not mine -- are exiting.

We do have an SUV but it stays home M-F and gets taken out when the 5 of us are together on weekends. By this time my 8th grader is waving out the window and I am waving back. Actually I am yelling loudly inside my car, “Get off the bus”! And my anti-lock brakes are making noises. As the bus is about to leave the neighborhood my phone rings and it is my oldest (using a friend’s phone) and I ask if he wanted to get off the bus with his brother to get home sooner. Actually I kind of yelled it. He says OK but it’ll be the next neighborhood as the bus is now pulling out to the main street again. We see a small SUV that is in a ditch.

So now we pull into another neighborhood (farther from our home) and the bus doesn’t stop until we are well into it. My boys tell the bus driver that their mom is behind him in a car and he says “OK, yes, I know someone has been following me”. Next thing I know there are 5 boys walking over to my car. Apparently there are others who want to get home sooner rather than later (all live in our neighborhood and they know me). They squished into my Honda sedan.

Back out onto the main road I am going about 5 miles an hour because we are slipping around. One boy says, “Don’t brake!” (I knew not to). I stopped in front of one boys house and my brakes made crazy noises. Another boy lives down a steep hill so he got dropped off about a block away. Our driveway is a no-big-deal hill, you would think, but I slipped just going up it. I was done. Called the Hubs who was a couple minutes down the road and told him I was done being in my car and that he could pull it further up our driveway and into the garage. Turns out we have a snow shovel left behind by the older couple who used to own our house.
Last year when it snowed all day on a Saturday I stayed inside and cooked. That was fine, but I swore next time it snowed enough to do a snowman that I was going to play. And I am not sure why I took those boys home because all of them and more came over to our house to play. We made a snowman but then it was crushed to death by boys. I made snowballs. I made butt prints by sitting on a bench. I took pictures. Notice I say "I" because middle schoolers are not playing with a mom, and Youngest is playing with the middle schoolers. Another mom came out and she had a fussy 2 yr old in a stroller and in her arms and a 6 yr old hanging out with the middle school gang and after a little bit they all went back inside. She commented to the Hubs and I we must like being past the strollers and diapers stage. That was a good reminder for me.

And then I went inside and cooked meatloaf and mashed potatoes and we ate at 8:30 p.m. Last week I picked the kids up one early afternoon for one of those early release days. e were having a good time at lunch and I asked my 8th grader if he wished I had been a stay at home mom. He said "Yeah, and then I could be a car rider every day". On Friday he was a bus rider and a car rider.