Good Morning All--
A little background:
difficult child is not one of those middle-school girls with a whole group of friends. She receives very few phone calls. She does not have steady girlfriends that she hangs out at the mall with, or has sleepovers with...any visit to a friends house is a big deal.
The school bus stops directly at our house. At the beginning of the school year, while difficult child was waiting for the bus, a car pulled over at the side of the road and difficult child ran over and hopped right in. I didn't recognize the car... So I called the school to make sure difficult child had arrived. She had.
Later that day, I talked to difficult child about accepting rides to school with people (she said "O that was a girl from my bus--I saw her in the passenger seat so I knew it was OK"). Regardless, I told her, you are to ride the bus. I explained that we want to know where she is and that she is safe, yadda yadda yadda.
This week, the kids have a substitute bus driver. Now it happens that the elementary school kids are picked up first, and then the same driver comes back and picks up the middle school kids. My son has been complaining that the new driver gets him to school late. difficult child really had nothing to say on the subject.
This morning, the bus pulled up to the house....sat for a few minutes...and left. difficult child never got on...but somehow made it to school just the same. Obviously, this must have been happening all week--but because I am busy getting ready myself in the morning, it is the first day that I saw the bus leave my house without my child.
I am furious! I have no idea who she is riding with! And she has chosen not to mention a word of it to her parents despite us having conversations about the new bus driver with her brother at the dinner table.
So what do you think? Am I over-reacting? How serious is this? It seems to me that if you had a friend who could give you a ride to school, you might say "Hey Mom, is it all right if I catch a ride to school with Anna tomorrow?" But no such request...
And because difficult child has no regular friends that she hangs out with...I don't have the slightest idea who I could even call to say "Hey, thanks for picking up my daughter, but it really isn't necessary."
How would you handle this?
Thanks for any suggestions,
DaisyF.
A little background:
difficult child is not one of those middle-school girls with a whole group of friends. She receives very few phone calls. She does not have steady girlfriends that she hangs out at the mall with, or has sleepovers with...any visit to a friends house is a big deal.
The school bus stops directly at our house. At the beginning of the school year, while difficult child was waiting for the bus, a car pulled over at the side of the road and difficult child ran over and hopped right in. I didn't recognize the car... So I called the school to make sure difficult child had arrived. She had.
Later that day, I talked to difficult child about accepting rides to school with people (she said "O that was a girl from my bus--I saw her in the passenger seat so I knew it was OK"). Regardless, I told her, you are to ride the bus. I explained that we want to know where she is and that she is safe, yadda yadda yadda.
This week, the kids have a substitute bus driver. Now it happens that the elementary school kids are picked up first, and then the same driver comes back and picks up the middle school kids. My son has been complaining that the new driver gets him to school late. difficult child really had nothing to say on the subject.
This morning, the bus pulled up to the house....sat for a few minutes...and left. difficult child never got on...but somehow made it to school just the same. Obviously, this must have been happening all week--but because I am busy getting ready myself in the morning, it is the first day that I saw the bus leave my house without my child.
I am furious! I have no idea who she is riding with! And she has chosen not to mention a word of it to her parents despite us having conversations about the new bus driver with her brother at the dinner table.
So what do you think? Am I over-reacting? How serious is this? It seems to me that if you had a friend who could give you a ride to school, you might say "Hey Mom, is it all right if I catch a ride to school with Anna tomorrow?" But no such request...
And because difficult child has no regular friends that she hangs out with...I don't have the slightest idea who I could even call to say "Hey, thanks for picking up my daughter, but it really isn't necessary."
How would you handle this?
Thanks for any suggestions,
DaisyF.