difficult child Did Not Come Home....AGAIN!!!

[DaisyFace]

Well...great...

Today was a half-day at school. Students were dismissed about 2 hours ago.

difficult child is still not home.

Yesterday she "missed the bus" and hung out with her boyfriend after school.

husband was really ticked off (as this is nowhere near the first time this has happened) and told her that next time she "missed the bus"....she would be grounded all weekend.

So....

Now that she can no longer "miss the bus" - what do you want to make a bet that she just won't come home at all???

(or, if for once....she really, genuinely DID miss the bus....and now she is afraid to come home???)

((Do we really think that would happen? What are the odds??????))

(((Am I just being naive again?????????)))

 

[PatriotsGirl]

I wouldn't believe that she really missed the bus......several times......my kids have maybe missed the bus two or three times in their entire school careers. If you know you have to get on a bus, you make sure you butt is on the bus. Just my opinion....sorry.

 

[ski10]

Hmm...me thinks she just didn't get on the old bus...I have been there done that when my daughter was younger, heard all kinds of excuses and in the end YOU are so confused and actually feel bad for ever thinking she did not truly miss the bus. Aghhh..

 

[klmno]

DF, kids that age around here do that on a regular basis. You might as well put guidelines in place for her to hang out with friends after school- they are just not going to come straight home every day. The best I could do was when difficult child was in 7th grade, I started telling him that he needed to check in at home then he could go out to visit friends, but he only did that half the time. By the time he came home from Department of Juvenile Justice last year, even on house arrest by PO he wouldn't come straight home many times.

 

[AnnieO]

Onyxx's excuse used to be that she "didn't know where the bus was".

UM HMM. Then how did Jett find it - AND HER?

Now, she rides it - because she alienated all her rides - but she gets off at someone else's house.

Oh well.

 

[shellyd67]

I don't know if she missed the bus on purpose or not but my guess is she missed it intentionally DF... Sorry honey !

 

[Star*]

This is where I would be sitting in curlers and Pajamas and my WORST morning slippers - waiting to pick her up in front of the school because SHE NO GET RIDE BUS NO MORE MISSY YOU COME HOME NOW. AND just for kicks? I'd probably shop at the PIggly Wiggly and get in the Toy Chest and pick out some Bubba teeth? And put those in too as I stood in the door way of the school with a sign that said HI! I'm DAISY - SO AN SO's MOMMA!

Maybe even borrow Aunti Stars Car to pick her up in lllllllOMG that would do it for sure.

 

[KTMom91]

Is she home yet, DF?

 

[DammitJanet]

Jamie skipped school one day...probably more than once but we caught him this day. He was riding around in his friends car that was so noticeable ivt wasnt funny. His bad luck was his father and happened to be going out that morning right after they left for school. They headed the opposite direction from school. We caught them going down a main road. My son was so easy to spot because he was about a foot taller than everyone else and he was sitting in the middle of the back seat...lol.

We pulled up beside them and beeped and motioned for them to pull over, we scared the koi out of them and they did in the closest gas station. We yelled at the other kids but we dragged our kid out by his ears. I went into the store to get drinks and the clerk was so worried she was getting ready to call the cops when I explained we had just caught the boys skipping school and the one we were yanking out of the car was ours! LOL. Needless to say, Jamie road the big yellow bus for a long, long time after that.

 

[TerryJ2]

I don't know what to day. Just sending {{hugs}}

 

[timer lady]

Starbie, I've told kt I'd do that on a regular basis ~ she's yet to miss her bus. DF, waiting for an update.

 

[DaisyFace]

Update:

difficult child did come home....and here's where it gets weird:

The school buses in this district sound an alarm when dropping off or picking up kids. So you can always tell the bus is at the house because you can hear the "Whee-woo-whee-woo" of the alarm...

Well, I heard a loud diesel noise (like a bus) - but no whee-woo, whee-woo - and then a few minutes later, difficult child walks in the door explaining that she was really, really late because there was a subsitute driver and she let difficult child off at the wrong stop.

Truth? Fiction?

I have no idea...

But she's home.

She's safe.

So now, we worry about tomorrow...

 

[susiestar]

Star has the right idea. If she won't come home on hte bus then you need to take a day or two where you take your lunch at the time to pick her up or else take time off work and go pick her up dressed the absolute WORST you possibly can manage. Pick her up and let everyone know LOUDLY that you must pick her up because she isn't responsible enough to come home and you need to take her to go do something horribly embarrassing. TO go pick out new barney underwear because she keeps wetting her pants or some such. Yes, it does sound mean - but no worse than what she does to you. Sometimes it is needed to go and embarrass them into being afraid to behave badly. Let her know you will keep doing it if she keeps not coming home.

WHen Wiz was in jr high they adored husband at the office. If Wiz misbehaved husband was going to go to school and sign the Barney song over the intercom - dedicated to Wiz as "his favorite song". Wiz hated Barney and KNEW his father would 1000% carry through. It totally kept Wiz behaving relatively well for a year. At least at school anyway.

Go in your ugly jammies (make sure they don't match) and make your hair as bad as possible. Make a sign, sing a song (esp if you cannot carry a tune and know one that she will HATE). make it embarrassing for her to NOT get on the bus. Or get permission to ride the bus WITH her. get a ride to her school, go to her last class and FIND her and wait for the bus, then ride the bus to ehr stop. Tell everyone around that you are doing this because she cannot find the bus or the house and you are SO WORRIED about her and you want to make sure she can find her way home because she keeps getting "lost" and you know she has memory problems, cannot remember even basic things that a first grader can remember like where home is and hwo to get there.

It will work. She will be furious, but keep the "I am just helping you because you cannot help yourself" and hten at home let her know that if it has to keep happening you will do it and you will make sure it only gets worse.

 

[KTMom91]

And fix your hair with one braid and one pigtail, wear mismatched slippers, line your lips with blue eyeliner, and dance.

 

[Jena]

oh the joy of kids......... i'm glad shes' home........ sorry you had to stress. i agree with klmno also shes at an age where they do hang out for a bit. so why not sit down with-her and make up a schedule for her certain days she can hang out and where she'll be, certain days she has to report home.

i always made easy child report home though before hanging out just to check in...... umm yet she left so what do i know?? LOL

either way glad she's home

 

[Marguerite]

I'd be ringing the bus company to check out difficult child's story. I have a very suspicious mind.

Marg

 

[DaisyFace]

I'd be ringing the bus company to check out difficult child's story. I have a very suspicious mind.

Marg

Marg--

This used to be my first instinct, too...

And then I learned that the SD's Transportation dept is a mess! Most of the buses are old...constantly breaking down. The routes are very long and winding...and then each driver does multiple routes. So any delay on the first trip will cause delays on subsequent trips. AND because the bus drivers and the transportation clerks are the same people (yes, you read that correctly)....there is no one to answer the phone at the transportation office until the drivers return to the office.

Yes, you could try to ring the supervisor, but your call will have to wait until he is finished with his route.

This is why only about 1/3 of the students even ride the bus. The rest either walk or get driven by parents.

Why don't I drive difficult child? Because she doesn't come out of school any faster knowing I am sitting in my car waiting for her. Parents are NOT allowed to go into the school to "fetch" their children. And I have better things to do than sit in car-line for 45 minutes every afternoon.