4 year old left on the bus

[Huskylover1]

Just heard about this on the news.

A 4 year old boy, gets the bus home from school. He misses his stop. Doesn't alert the driver. Driver gets back to the depot and parks up the bus and leaves. Bus driver has now been sacked for this.

In my book, a 4 year old, is way too young to get the bus home. Especially as there was no parent waiting at the bus stop even! Had there been, the parent would have alerted the bus driver that their son was on board, and needed to get off. Usually, this boy makes his own way home from the bus stop, lets himself in, and his parents arrive home from work, shortly thereafter.

Cue lots of moaning by the parents, that they've been let down. No mention from anyone, that perhaps this little boy shouldn't be making this journey alone.

I just can't fathom, how any parent can thinks it's good judgement to let a 4 year old:

• identify the right school bus to get on
• realise when he needs to get off
• walk from the bus stop to home, and let himself in

Bonkers!

Do we even know if the family do live in a 2-flat building, or a four in a block, rather than a regular house?

A PP has kindly offered to recce North Kessock (with footage) for the Enquiring Minds on this thread.

I've searched Rightmove for flats to buy or rent in North Kessock. Nothing!

It's hilarious the different turns this thread has taken... I love how it's currently flats vs houses.

I'm English but live in Scotland and for those of you who say you call your flats houses.. you don't, you call them hoooses!!! (light hearted)

Ps also love how several people have adopted the phrase "frothing".

That 4 in a block could be so many schemes, knightswood, shettleston, north lan

How creepy is that?

Internet strangers are "kindly" going to get footage of a 4 year olds house.

Weird beyond weird

I've searched Rightmove for flats to buy or rent in North Kessock. Nothing!

Only seems to be a bunch of (expensive) new builds for sale.

How creepy is that?

Internet strangers are "kindly" going to get footage of a 4 year olds house.

I swear you have to be one of the biggest wind up merchants on this site at the moment.

I've searched Rightmove for flats to buy or rent in North Kessock. Nothing!

Only seems to be a bunch of (expensive) new builds for sale.

Yes! Very expensive! Much dearer place to live than where I am in Ayrshire.

why has this thread attracted so many dicknozzles?

I suspect this thread is simply a reflection of how MN generally has less intelligent posters these days.

Surely people can only be pretending not to know what a school bus is?

Our primary has a minibus that bring children from the next village and we’re only an hour out of central London. You don’t have to live in the Highlands and Islands to qualify for school transport.

If the only adult supervising the kids on it was the driver, then it's fucked up. Kids of that age need to be properly supervised by someone who can watch them at all times. A driver has to watch the road

There are tens of thousands of children being transported on school buses, in the uk, every single day. Non of them have another adult on them apart from the driver.

Do you often hear of anything going wrong? No, the very reason this is on the news, is becaus it’s very rare. Both my DDs went in the school bus form 4- 18. I cannot think of a single “incident” in all those years.

his jacket might have been hanging on a shoogly peg already.

My parents took me to school zero times in my life. From 5 years old I cycled half a a mile then the school mini bus took me to school. From 8 years I cycled half a mile to school. From 12 I had to catch a mini bus which took us to a public bus service. The bus driver deserved the sack.
Didn't he have a list of children on his bus? That would have solved the problem.

I do think that there should be an adult other than the driver on school buses, but that has nothing to do with this particular case. The driver should have known which houses he was to stop at and he should have checked the bus at the depot.

Potential bullying, illness and accidents are why I think there should be another adult on the bus. A child I know was recently taken ill on the school bus and it was other children (secondary school age) who assisted and called the ambulance and the child's mother. The driver didn't know what to do, and was of no help at all.

In all my years on MN, in excess of 12, I really don't think I have ever seen a thread that has annoyed me more.
Just because we all don't live in cities where you don't let your children out of your sight, does not mean that we are wrong for letting our DC's get the school bus to and from school.
Please don't judge parents for doing something that is "bizzare" to you when it is perfectly normal and SAFE to us.
This thread just shows how some mumsnetters really are naive about how others live but feel they can happily judge others. Not nice

Thanks Butchy and Prickly.

It's a big favourite of mine. That and the voice recognition lift scene in Burnistoun. Hilarious.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=sAz_UvnUeuU

For anyone who hasn't seen it.

How creepy is that?

Internet strangers are "kindly" going to get footage of a 4 year olds house.

You're the one who started a fucking Jeremy Kyle show about what constitutes a block of bloody flats.

Yeah, bastarding Siri pretends not to understand a word I say!

The thing that strikes me about this thread and another current thread is that despite Mumsnet posters always being so liberal and open minded and inclusive that when push comes to shove many many users seem quite incapable of imagining any lives different from their own.

That was dictated using Google voice recognition which got it perfectly correct first time.

despite Mumsnet posters always being so liberal and open minded and inclusive

Not when it comes to rural dwellers though. Or those who live in a four-in-the-block.

Yes I suppose what I really meant was Mumsnet posters claiming to be so liberal and open minded and inclusive.

Seeing so secondary aged children should have another adult on the bus with them?? Are you on glue?

Many people on this thread have said their dc have had absolutely no issue what so ever, when using a school bus, for all their school lives.

Also whose going to pay for all these extra adults on every single school bus

And lastly the free school bus isn’t compulsory. Any parent who isn’t happy with the arrangements can use other means of getting their child to school.

This thread is ACE . It amused me greatly way into the night and is still going strong. In our area we have 'House Type Flats' . Just throwing that into the mix there.