Lament of the Modern Parent
Don't ask me where I've been, I don't know. What have I been doing? Stuff surely, but nothing of note. Nothing overly remarkable. I enjoy an early morning walk and then I lay my head on the pillow when it's late and dark. Whatever necessary things get done in-between, boring, mundane things not worth mentioning.
My only child starts high school in two days, so that's weird. Could they give us a convenient bus stop right at the top of the street where the bus must pass us by anyways? No, no, of course not. Budget cuts and bus shortages, you know. Instead, he must pick it up at the middle school just shy a mile away in the opposite direction to only minutes later ride past and look down the street from whence he'd just come 20 minutes ago.
You know what this means right? Right!?!? That freedom I had so been looking forward to for years that I could finally, after patiently, politely waiting, could untether my morning schedule from his is likely gone. Teens are not known for get up responsibly and timely in the morning. I had always walked him that other way where it is dark and quiet and the bears roam in the dark early morning hours to look after my own cub vigilantly. Finally, I could send him the other way, the bright way towards the busy street and just a short walk and easy view line from the front window. Nope, like water in a desert it evaporates.
I could be hands off. Try not to worry. Let him deal any consequences if he's too late and misses the bus. Do they make tardy exceptions for being mauled by a bear?
Musical Interlude
(You can skip a minute of sonar pings by skipping to 1:04 if you don't like the slow build-up)
I have to admit, the adventures of growing up in Wales were certainly a great learning curve - but never involved bears!
ReplyDeleteHeavens! Gotye's big hit was thirteen years ago? How time flies... I note that it has recently had a big dance remix, which might be why it's re-entered your consciousness (if it's been on the radio or played in a supermarket or bar, perhaps). The man himself seems like one of those rare beasts - an artist with integrity, which explains why he never followed up with any further hits... Jx
PS I shan't enter into a discussion about "fairy rings" for fear of getting smutty 😍
I didn't know you grew up in Wales! We grew a fondness for Wales through episodes of Torchwood. (Talk about a throwback to olden days! The spin off show from Doctor Who. I had to look it up the air dates, 2006-2011, sounds about right.)
DeleteMy only conventional form of knowing what's cool is if I catch it on YouTube or in video games. My son informs that the Gotye song was somehow popular for a while with a game him and his friends played a lot called Garry's mod. Our supermarkets play shitty music, at least during the hours I shop.
Oh Dear! Best not! I imagine your idea of a smutty fairy ring and mine are likely different, except for the hope of a sexy elf or fairy creature at the other end of it. ;)
I never caught Torchwood, despite the presence of the very sexy John Barrowman and all that gay stuff going on.
DeleteCardiff (where it's set) is an ever-changing place - I lived there for just over five years in the 80s. I left Wales for good in 1997. I happened to go back to the city, as part of a work thing, long after I moved to London in 1999, and didn't recognise a lot of the "old stamping-grounds" - so much had gone and been replaced by shiny new glass blocks.
So even if I did watch the show, it might not have been a trip down memory lane... Jx
Nice to see you pop up! I know too well about teenagers not getting up. I have and will never be a morning person I surmise. For me , when off for the weeeknds or vacation, I don't arise till around 11:00am or later depending on what antics and beverages were consumed the night before. But as a teen, my mother would always put on the hallway light and open my door, so the light bean hit me right in the face, to which I grumbled about for the next 20 minutes, and had tantrums. How I ever got to class was beyond me. And now still, I need my own time, Maddie time, to arise, at least peacefully. Otherwise talk about waking up a sleeping lion.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Occasionally you might here a brief refrain from parents with older children on how hard it is to let kids grow up and be more independent, but until it's your turn you never really know the way of it. I had to parent myself at an early age because my mom worked a lot and my parents were divorced. A part of me has always preferred the morning shift. I've never been able to be a night owl, even when it was expected of me as a teenager.
DeleteThe Goyte tune always reminds me of Sting! I know not why.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, the walk conundrum is a problem. Where I used to live the bus driver used to make an unscheduled stop outside my house if I asked nicely - he used to do it for my neighbours too. This was years ago though - and an unreliable method for everyday use. What a pain. Do you have any neighbour's kids that might be going in the right direction?
Sx
I get what you mean! Though I can't quite explain it either. Yes, me too! I became the only student at my stop and he still had to drive down my street anyways. I'm hoping maybe I wrong, and things get sorted better within the first three days of school. Our schools get the absolutely worst software interfaces to try and understand! I'm really kicking myself for not calling the Transportation office last week when they were open for clarification.
DeleteThe wildlife and extremes of climate are freaky in the USA, to the extent I can't tell whether you're serious that your son could be mauled by a bear on the way to school! Congratulations on this rite of passage and hopefully the time he starts doing the whole journey without you comes soon!
ReplyDeleteBeing mauled by a bear here is rare, but it has happened. If the person and the bear find themselves too close when surprising each other the bear might attack out of its own fear. This happened to the Mayor of a neighboring City when he was taking out the garbage one night. Occasionally, some black bears do become predatory.
ReplyDeleteMy son is bigger and stronger than me now, but he's still my child and I know pain and suffering in a way that I hope he never will.
That first paragraph got to me - that's the way it is, that routine mundane family grind. And how well I remember all that school bus route nonsense. The district never gets it right, the stops make no sense whatsoever, and yes folks, my kid was at risk for being mauled by a bear too, all the way up through high school. It's a real thing here! You tell 'em!
ReplyDeleteRather coincidentally, I read an article about animal attacks in North America the other day. From what I remember, if talking calmly to a grizzly or black bear while slowly backing off doesn't work and the bear attacks, with the grizzly you should play dead (ideally on your stomach) with your arms protecting your head. But, as the black bear is smaller, you should fight it off any way you can.
ReplyDelete(And you shouldn't run from big cats because they are all for the chase, instead you should make yourself look as big as possible and fight them off if they still attack.)
Of course, I didn't take too much notice because bears and cougars are unsurprisingly scarce around here. I'm more interested in how not to get trampled by a cow or pecked to death by an angry goose!
So anyway, fingers crossed that the school/transportation office makes some changes once they realise what's happening. Either that or a fairy ring does appear and its portal leads directly to the school. It would have to be uninhabited/abandoned, though. I wouldn't recommend using a "live" one!
That is the advice we live by around here. I've always told my son since he was little, "Prey runs, don't be prey." So far, calmly walking back from whence I came, or away from whatever predator I am facing has worked out for me. I still would be scared to death should I ever encounter a cougar though. They are most likely to mean serious harm. Most of the time when you see a Black bear it is the ass end running away from you. No luck on Transportation amendments it seems.
DeleteBlogger ate my comment. Crap. But I was there, supporting your cause, flying the banner of Bear on Child Attacks On The Way To School, because my kid was at risk for the same damn thing for all twelve years out here in the Fourth Corner. Just standing waiting for the bus. Not even doing anything that could be considered at all delicious to a bear. Anywhere you have deer - and we have herds of them roaming around - you will have bears. And! Where there are deers and bears, there are also....cougars. Yes. Freekin' cougars. They eat kids too. Basically this is the frontier days in Washington State, only with better plumbing. You tell 'em Prox!
ReplyDeleteYes, it's the thought of coming face to face with a Cougar that scares me shitless. I feel I could hold my own against a Black Bear if I had too, and my son too, but Cougars, just the way they might look at you with that intense stare like you're suddenly a cartoon image of a Thanksgiving turkey! The bus route has altered in the last few days but not in our favor, quite the opposite actually. Now he doesn't want me to call for fear of ending up on a different bus than all his friends, so he rather hoof it on a long dark bear infested path to spend a 15minute ride with friends that be practical. We'll see how he feels in damn dark mornings of November, but by then it will be too late to change.
ReplyDeleteYay! Your kid survived! I guess this is how we make hardy Pacific Northwesterners out of them!