The Lessons We Teach Our Children....

Every morning and every afternoon, my son needs to catch a school bus to and from school. For him to use the school bus cost us $60.00 a year. $60.00 is not that bad of price to pay for him to get ride. However, there have been a quiet a few times in the past were he had missed the bus. But back then it was never really an issue if he had missed the bus because at that time we were a two car family. But now we are down to one car and my son missing the bus is now a problem, and yesterday was a good day to teach him a valuable lesson in regards to the importance of being on time for the bus.

I got the phone call from school and knew what had happen before I even answered the phone. He missed the bus. The conversation went like this.

Me: Hello
School: Hi this so and so from l’ecole Poirier, DM has missed the bus and is asking for a ride home.
Me: I have no way to pick him up, my husband has the car. I don’t even have my wallet to pay for a cab.
School: oh!
Me: Here’s the scoop, I am going to teach him a lesson about missing the bus; he can walk home.
School: hold on
Muffled voices: DM your mom said for you to walk home!
DM in the background: WHAT! That would take me hours to get home.
I can hear him start to cry.
Me: Can I speak to him.
DM: I have to walk home! Can your friend pick me up?
Me: No
DM: Can Pa-pa’s friend pick me up?
Me: No, Pa-pa’s friend is at work.
Me: You want to miss the bus, you can walk home. I will see you soon.
DM: crying now, **sniff** **sniff** O.K **sniff**
The phone hangs up.

OMG! I felt so bad for doing that, and to be truthful about it all I was worried about him. After all he is only 8 years old, but an old 8 year old, he will be turning 9 in a couple of months. It took him an hour and ten minutes to walk home. What I thought was going to be good lesson for him, ended up being a big discovery about himself. He really liked walking home and had asked if he could do it again. I was very surprised about that request. He said that he had fun looking around. He saw cows, horses, llamas. He ate black berries along the way. He ran a little bit and walked a little bit. Then he told me that was longest he had ever had to walk. What was I to say to him, “Glad you had fun?”
So know I have to ask my-self this question, did he learn a lesson here? I will never know. But I am glad that he had fun, but I will never tell him that, after all it was to be his punishment. And maybe, just maybe if the weather is nice I will let him walk home again.