I think I AM being unreasonable, but tell me WHO to be unreasonable with.... if anyone

[fryalot]

It started snowing this morning.

By lunch time it was really quite heavy and by 3.00 the local school was shutting early and the bus refused to come to collect the children.

dd1 goes to the high school 8 miles away and gets the school bus back. The bus set off at 3.30 as usual, but apparently some of the kids on the bus were messing about throwing snowballs on the upper deck so the bus driver decided to return to school.

The children were told off by a teacher and the bus then set off again.

The bus was then an hour behind schedule. Not too much of a problem usually... BUT by that time the roads were completely impassable and the bus stopped about 3 miles away from home. It was then stranded until one of our neighbours with a 4 x 4 went to the rescue and took all the children home (making about four trips)

Now, I am obviously grateful to the nieghbour for getting dd1 home safely. I don't condone the bad behaviour of some of the children on the bus and obviously something had to be done about it.

But... the lateness of the journey meant that an extra hour's worth of really heavy snowfall made the roads impassable and if my neighbour hadn't been out and about in his 4 x 4 ten children would have been stranded miles away from home.

SO: AIBU to ring the school to either complain or ask what the provision is for getting the children home if the bus can't get through, or should I just be happy that everything was ok and hope it doesn't happen again.

Sorry this was so long, I got a bit carried away.

ta

I'd ring and just say you were worried but dont make a big deal.

i think you should just think yourself lucky.

if the worst had come to the worst they'd have just had to stay at school wouldn't they?
they didn't though because the bus driver did his best, and someone else helped out.

these days you're lucky to find peoiple who'll bother trying to do the right thing,. so be thankful

I think you have every right to ask the school what their policy is for ensuring the safe transportation of each child home in bad weather.
Did the driver even take heed of weather forecasts?
I can understand the driver being annoyed, but surely safety comes before chastising the kids (although son't know how bad it was). What was the purpose of returning to school? what good did that do?

thisisyesterday - The bus stopped half way home from school. By that point, the snow was possibly bad enough that they wouldn't have got back to school then either.

It's not the fact that she couldn;t get home, it was he fact that she could have been stranded miles away from home in very bad weather.

(thanks for replies all, btw)

I would call the school to let them know your concerns and to make sure that they are aware that your neighbour had in effect rescued the kids.

I'm not sure what kind of response you'll get but calling them will do no harm .

but what I am saying is: what would you have wanted them to do?

just kept them there and done what with them????

the fact is, they made an effort to get them home. the bus driver didn't know he'd get stuck, he did his best.
and luckily someone else was there to help too.

it's a lot better than the alternative IMO.

I did want to ring the school, but wanted to take a bit of advice first before wading right in with my size sixes.

So I'm not unreasonable to question their policy of getting the children home if the weather gets seriously bad AFTER the bus has set off?

Do I mention the bus setting off late and why, or do I just say that the bus got stuck?

thisisyesterday - if the bus driver hadn't been an hour late, he would have got through without any real problem. It was the hour long detour that directly contributed to the getting stuck.

And I don't know what I wanted them to do, which is why I'm asking you lot what would be reasonable.

I think the fact that you dont know who you want to complain about is a strong indication that you dont have a reason to complain.

Yanbu. Yes, you should voice your concerns to the school.

Take note anti's: 4 x4 to the rescue

well if you don't know what you want them to do then what is the point in complaining?

what on earth CAN they do if the weather gets bad after the bus sets off? they aren't gods.

their only alternative would be to have everyoner stay at the school overnight. which would clearly be unacceptable too surely????

I'd just say - DD had to be brought home by a friend yesterday (I take it you'll call tomorrow) and I'm just worried in case something like that happens again. Can you please tell me what your policy is.

Dont wade in, just calmy ask and do remember as thisisyesterday said. They could have just not bothered.

it's snow.
it's life.
my kids used to get the schoolbus and it was a stated policy that bad behaviour would not be tolerated and occasionally the disruptive kids were actually taken back to school and turfed out.
Good on your neighbour by the way

fair points.

So you think I'm being unreasonable feeling that the bus driver should not have taken a long detour?

Which is the issue, not the weather being bad, the fact that the weather was so much worse than when the bus set off originally

yes. I would imagine that it's pretty grim driving a bus in those conditions full stop.
and even worse with little shits pissing about with snowballs in it too.

I think he made the right decision to return them to school for the safety of everyone else on the bus.
he wasn't to know he'd get stuck when he set out again. he was just doing his best.

Squonk - knowing where you live and what the roads are like and knowing where I live and what the roads were like today, then I think you have every right to ring up and complain IYSWIM

Ladies - Squonk lives in the middle of nowhere so I can totally see where she is coming from.

thisis - I think what she is trying to say is that the weather was only going to go one way and that was worse, so surely it would have been better for the bus driver to take every ones name and pass number and report them tomorrow morning rather than making a journey more unnecessary.

DS1 travels about 4 miles on a school bus and I was worried about him getting home (although different school to squonk)

okay.

thanks for all your comments, it's a bit more in perspective for me now.

As I said in the thread title, i did think I was being unreasonable. Just needed clarification.

ta.

I don't know, I think the driver could have used a bit more common sense as in threatening them that they'd go back to school, he must have known how bad it'd get after a while longer.

I think half dozen chuckie eggs to your neighbour might be in order...

thanks bellavita - it was BAAAAAD here today! Much worse than last week.

I think the issue is kids were badly behaving on the bus.

So the driver took them back to the school.Quite right.

he/she would probably have turfed them out EXCEPT for the fact the snow was getting worse and worse so the driver probably felt obligated to attempt to get the kids home safely.

thats how I see it but maybe I dont know all the facts

I would not be annoyed at anyone except the badly behaved kids

well... maybe a couple of chuckie eggs.

Bad here too squonk am so glad I am not working tonight and having to drive down the country roads.

mrsblanc - I totally agree with being unhappy with the misbehaving children.

I don't think it was a coincidence that they were all children who live off the main road who could have just hopped on a regular bus if they had been turfed off the school bus. All the kids who had no other way of getting home were apparently all very well behaved.

When some boys were messing about on DS's school bus (DS1 included), the driver took note of all their names and pass numbers before they got off and asked them to write a full page report to the Head of Year which had to be presented the next morning - it frightened the life out of him.