after school plan

njbride0603

if your child comes home on the bus do you have a plan in case for some reason you or your DH aren't at the bus stop for some reason? our bus stop isn't in front of our house but up the block. Not sure if I should have her start walking home...she would have to cross the street and she would be walking alone. most people on our block work. There is another mom who doesn't work who I see at the bus stop but I really don't know her and not sure if in case of an emergency see if she could help....just wondering what others would do....

neverblushed

Can your DD just wait at the bus stop until you get there?  Do other parents and kids hang around to chat and play after the bus drops off?  How far away is the bus stop from your house?  If it's visible from your home, I'd be okay with a 6 y/o walking home, if she demonstrated she could reliably judge whether it's safe to cross the street.

For grades K-3, my son's bus stop was our driveway.  My next door neighbor is my aftercare provider if I'm working later than his bus.

We came up with a plan for what to do if I'm supposed to be the one home and I'm not here.  He goes over to the neighbor's house.  If she's not home, he waits on her carport (which is more sheltered than our deck.)

Now he goes to a magnet school.  The bus stop is his old elementary school.  My neighbor or I pick him up.  If we're not there on time, he just hangs out with other kids whose parents haven't arrived yet.  He knows that if he's there for a long time and no one shows up, he should go into the office and ask to use the phone to call the neighbor, me, or his grandmother who works in the area.

In the spring we will probably work up to having him walk home from the bus stop (it's about a half mile away from our house but you have to cross a busy road with no signal or crosswalk.)  My DD gets home before him most afternoons, and she has been walking home since the end of 7th grade.  He walks and bikes more than he does, so his street smarts (literally) are better developed than hers were at this age.  By the time spring rolls around, he'll be ready.

funchicken

My neighbor and I text each other if we're going to be late, so DD would walk home with her if I couldn't be there. I've picked up her DD at the bus stop a couple of times.