Child catching a bus - what not to forget.

Spendless

DD had a drama class today but I was working.

Her drama class is in the next village to where I work, which is on the opposite side of town to where I live and the kids school. I couldn't finish work and run her to drama club in time, so I asked 13yo DS to pick his sister up from school, go home, get changed, catch the bus into town, gave them money to get something to eat and wait for me to get to them to give a lift to drama class. My workplace is in the middle between town centre and drama class.

13yo catches a dedicated school bus daily and has caught service bus with friends occasionally. DD aged 10 in yr 6 has only ever caught a bus on her way home with me from the terminal. I receive a phone call at work from DS telling me they've missed the bus! Why? He'd forgotten you have to put your hand out to make it stop, so it went sailing past.

Aaarrrrrgggggghhhhhhh :rotfl:

thorsoak

So they got off at the next stop and walked back? They won't do that again!

Spendless

thorsoak wrote: »

So they got off at the next stop and walked back? They won't do that again!

No, it went past them without stopping. They had to catch the next one with 20 minutes between them and the next bus was 13 minutes late! DS rang me to ask what he did next.:doh:.

thorsoak

Whoops - mis-read - thought they'd caught the bus and missed their stop!

It's strange isn't it - a whole generation growing up that have never used public transport! When I was in the USA earlier this year, my dgd was incredulous when I told her that I'd caught a bus into their nearest big town (from the end of their street) - they've only lived there for 6 years!!

pukkamum

Hmmm I'd be more inclined to think they had been chatting/messing about and didn't see it til it was to late.

Spendless

pukkamum wrote: »

Hmmm I'd be more inclined to think they had been chatting/messing about and didn't see it til it was to late.

What they've said is, the school bus came round the corner shortly before so son didn't put hand out for it and it was in that frame of mind that he forgot.

Daughter didn't actually know that was how you got a bus to stop. Bus fares are expensive for adults where I live (5 miles from town centre) and I drive. If I use public transport I use the train, quicker and cheaper, but kids have never train'ed alone and were nervous about getting it right.

Daughter has only ever caught the bus home from town centre (with me) with our boarding point being the terminus, as this is something we do around Christmas time to see the lights through-out the town centre.

fluffnutter

My OH managed to miss a train despite being sat on the platform for 10 minutes before it came. When it turned up he wandered up and down idly looking for a seat, the doors closed and off it went. What a wally.

dibuzz

At least they will know next time.
Well done for letting them try it though.

fabforty

thorsoak wrote: »

Whoops - mis-read - thought they'd caught the bus and missed their stop!

It's strange isn't it - a whole generation growing up that have never used public transport!

I was just thinking the same thing. Perhaps that needs to be on the list of things that every parent teaches their child by a certain age - no offence OP - along with the other basics.

A few weeks ago, I heard a woman on the bus giving her child instructions on how to wash dishes without the dishwasher which apparently wasn't working - 'you have to use the washing up liquid [pause], it's in a bottle by the sink [pause] no, it's green [pause], make sure the water is hot[pause], you'll have to use the scrubby thing,[pause], to get the food off of course..' I have no idea how old the child was, but I had to laugh .

hardpressed

As someone who very very rarely uses a bus, I would expect if I was standing at a bus stop that the bus would stop. I don't think my children who only ever travelled on a school bus would know that either.

Valli

If it's any consolation my DD and her friends caught the train from my town to a huge shopping centre. The train they catch goes via the city centre then out to the big shopping centre. They 'assumed' the train they were on went to the big shopping centre (they don't all do that) and eventually, when they were at STOCKPORT they worked out it was the wrong train...
and the big shopping centre they were trying to get to is in Yorkshire. They were about 14 at the time.

The main thing is that they have strategies in place so they know what to do or where to get help if things go wrong.