you must be kidding

I've had a relatively busy day. After I went to lunch with my sister I stopped by Schmitty's school to see who his teacher was going to be. I also wanted to talk to someone about the bus situation.

I politely asked the front office what I could do about getting Schmitty on a bus. I found out the back corner of my subdivision is over 1.5 miles away and gets transportation. I asked if it would be possible for Schmitty to get on the bus if it wasn't full. Nope. I can try to enroll him in a different school outside our district that is further away. Then I could qualify for a bus. But, I argued, I want him to go to this school for several reasons that I researched and I live in this district. He's seven years old and there's no sidewalk or safe way for him to walk. There's not a shoulder or anything and it's 1.3 miles each way. If I walk with him I'll have a baby and a stroller and still no sidewalk. I don't get it. There's a bus that runs a few blocks from where I live that comes here that would be safer. Why can't he get on the bus is there's room? Nope. Liability issues. Is there a waiver process? (Can you tell I'm former military?) Nope.

It really doesn't make any sense to me. I'm trying not to think about it too much because the more I think about it the more extreme my thoughts get. (Keep reading.)

I also took Sam to a piano lesson today. Mrs. Meyer complimented him several times on being a good listener. She said, "I bet you like to read, don't you?" He said it was one of his favorite things. She asked him if he had all his school supplies ready for school and I told her that the school said they're providing everything this year and didn't give me a list. Mrs. Meyer said it was because of a lawsuit a few years back where a father said if he paid taxes and sent his kids to public school everything should be provided. He apparently won. That got me to thinking about suing for a safe walk to school.

I know it's not a big deal, I should just suck it up and drive him everyday like everyone else does. But I don't want to do that. It's not that I'm lazy, I walked him probably half a mile to the bus stop every single day in Germany. Happily. It's that they think it's okay for a kindergartener to walk 1.3 miles to school without a sidewalk? They keep harping on me about carpooling but I don't have a huge SUV or minivan. There's space for one more kid in my car, that's it. And when I walked Isaiah to the bus stop last year his mom was always late. Serenity now. I need to stop thinking about it.