October 14, 2005 - Friday
Well, it finally happened. I knew it would one of these days. Harry's bus came and I wasn't outside, or at least downstairs watching to go outside, to meet him. I was upstairs typing away at the computer, focused on a particularly delicate email when I heard the familiar sounds of the bus turning right onto our street and up the slight hill that works the engine just enough to be clearly heard from inside the house. I heard the noise, looked at the clock, and shot up. I did get downstairs pretty quickly and made it outside, but it wasn't until after the bus driver beeped the horn.

The thing is, this is not just the idle "I wasn't there to see him" of a doting parent. There's a rule for kindergartners on the bus that if a parent isn't there to meet them, they cannot get off the bus. They'll ride the route and be taken back to school to wait for a parent there. It's all in the name of safety, of course. Serendipitously, I'd spoken with Harry about this rule about two weeks ago on a rare day that I hadn't been working from home. I got back in time that day, but mentioned to Harry that if something had come up, maybe the car broke down or something and I couldn't get home, that would be the rule. He looked a little alarmed at the thought and I told him that chances are it would never happen because I usually work on the computer at home all day. What's more, I told him that if I ever wasn't there he should tell the bus driver to beep her horn because I'm probably inside.

"There he is," I heard the bus driver say.
"There he is," said Harry, before he climbed down the bus steps. "There you are," he said to me, echoing the happily releaved tone of the bus driver.
"Hi, Harry, sorry I wasn't here waiting. *I* almost missed the bus this time." We've talked a little about him nearly missing the bus a few times in the morning.
"Yeah, you almost missed the bus."
"Where you a little nervous?"
"Yeah," he answered with enough of a relieved tone to suggest that he probably had thought for a moment about having to stay on the bus.
"Did you tell the driver to beep her horn?" I asked.
"Yeah, I told her to beep the horn," he answered.
"Wow, that's great, Harry. I'm very impressed by that," I said, atlhough of course it's impossible to know if he really did or even if he did whether the driver was already doing it. But I gladly accepted his claim. "You know, one of the hardest things to do when you're nervous is to keep thinking clearly and letting your brain work. And even though you were nervous, you remembered just what to do. I'm really proud of you for that, Harry." It seems to me that whether he really did or not didn't remember to ask the bus driver to beep the horn, it really doesn't matter. Even if he thinks he did or even wished he did. It's positive re-inforcement either way. It'll probably help him remember next time.


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