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My kid starts kinder this year and she is looking forward to riding the bus to school. She has been on class field trips with her pre-k class so she LOVES the school bus and our school district allows kindergartners to ride it as long as the parent is at the pick-up/drop-off location. I believe the power lines in our neighborhood is underground so I cannot imagine something like this happening where we live.
HOWEVER, she is a people pleaser and I'm frightened to imagine someone at school telling her to do something stupid and resulting her getting hurt. You can talk to your kids about scenarios but obviously you can't foresee everything. Common sense come with experience which at 5 years old, she has a lot to experience!
I'm by no means a helicopter parent. I believe in natural consequences and for her to fight her own battles but stories like this just makes me want to homeschool and keep her bottled up in my house. Obviously that's a far fetched reaction but for you seasoned parents out there, how do you find that middle ground with your kids? How do you slowly let go, giving your kid more autonomy and still keep your sanity from worrying all the time?
It isn't easy to let go. You can not save them from everything. All you can do is raise them the best you can, warn them of dangers in the world (electrical lines have power in them, backup lights on a car mean the car is backing up, there are evil people in this world, drivers are ALL looking at their phones not at you...the list goes on)
Teaching moments occur every day. If I were worried about the specific scenario you just linked, I would say to my kids: "I read in the news that a bus driver told a boy to move a power line that was on the ground. Do you think that is the right thing to do? Why?"
Have a dialogue about things in the news on an age appropriate level and ask your children if it is a good thing or a bad thing. Just my .02
My kid starts kinder this year and she is looking forward to riding the bus to school. She has been on class field trips with her pre-k class so she LOVES the school bus and our school district allows kindergartners to ride it as long as the parent is at the pick-up/drop-off location. I believe the power lines in our neighborhood is underground so I cannot imagine something like this happening where we live.
HOWEVER, she is a people pleaser and I'm frightened to imagine someone at school telling her to do something stupid and resulting her getting hurt. You can talk to your kids about scenarios but obviously you can't foresee everything. Common sense come with experience which at 5 years old, she has a lot to experience!
I'm by no means a helicopter parent. I believe in natural consequences and for her to fight her own battles but stories like this just makes me want to homeschool and keep her bottled up in my house. Obviously that's a far fetched reaction but for you seasoned parents out there, how do you find that middle ground with your kids? How do you slowly let go, giving your kid more autonomy and still keep your sanity from worrying all the time?
My kids rode a school bus for years and they were never asked to move a downed power line. This is an unusual case, and is likely never to be encountered again. The bus driver sounds odd, to say the least. I am glad the kids weren't seriously hurt. I also note that she was immediately fired, which tells me that her bosses felt her conduct was unacceptable.
One of my "what ifs" that seems to keep popping up is the pool drain thing. Every time my kids are swimming, it pops in my head that they could be disemboweled or drown by the pool drain if its the old style...and if they completely cover it with their bodies. I know its one in more then a million...it pops up though.
When my kids rode the bus, the problems that happened were much more minor than that. Falling asleep on the way home and falling off the bus seat was a common problem. Learning bad words. The bus running 45 minutes late, which made me (and the other parents waiting) pretty anxious. But no downed power lines here.
Your child will have bad bus drivers, teachers, friends, etc., growing up. Learning to deal to with them is how your child is going to learn to navigate adulthood with bad bosses, coworkers, neighbors, etc. You can't control everything and you shouldn't try. There are times you will need to step in, but a lot of times you need to step away and let your child learn. Teach your child when you can and give her a voice to speak up if needed.
I'm not a big fan of lawsuits, as a general rule; but I would have sued that bus driver into oblivion if she had tried to have my kid touch a live power line. Any adult who would deliberately place my child in such obvious and extreme danger would need to pay, and pay dearly.
As it happens, I have told my children to never touch power lines. I tell them that the birds can safely land on them because they are not touching anything other than the wire; but the fact of completing the circuit (having their hand on the wire and any other part of their body touching anything else) is what would cause an electric shock.
That bus driver was stupid. The power companies always tell people never to touch a power line at all. He could have backed up and turned and used a different street so that no one would have been hurt. Where was his brain?
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