Bus Problems

Last week Joseph's bus aide gave me a paper with the school's rule about children needing to be "under control" in order to ride the bus. When I put Joseph on the bus, for some reason more often than not, he freaks out on me as soon s he realizes he's getting on the bus. I wasn't too worried about it because I knew that starting this week, his mother would be putting him on the bus and he cooperates with her and usually gets on cheerfully.

We're helping a friend, a single mother with a 7 year old son with autism. She just got a job after being unemployed for 6 months and she needed someone to watch Dominic for an hour and a half in the morning and then drive him to school. Joseph gets on the bus at 8:05, and so I would not have to get Dominic's coat on and take him out to Joseph's bus, Kristy moved her schedule so she goes in to work at 8:30 so she could put Joseph on the bus.

This morning, 10 minutes before it was time to meet the bus, Joseph saw the ironing board and pulled it out of the laundry side of the basement. When I took it away, he went into total meltdown, scratching and biting when I picked him up. We even gave him a little cake and he tried to throw it at us. Kristy took him out to the bus and they refused to take him. I don't entirely blame them, but this morning it is disastrously inconvenient.

Our car is a 4 door sedan, a late 90's model Escort. We can't fit Joseph, Maria AND Dominic in the car because they all need booster seats. We can't leave them home alone, of course. So that means I had to stay home and Kristy had to take Joseph to school, which takes 12-15 minutes each way (and I'm not sure they won't make her wait when she arrives to drop him off). Which means there is pretty much no way she can make it to work by 8:30. And at work she is on a Final Warning for tardies (left over from when she was "fired" during the summer). Which means that if she's late, she loses her job. If she calls off, she doesn't get fired, but she doesn't get paid for today either. It's a ridiculous policy that encourages absenteeism over tardiness. Because of various payroll cock-ups over the last few weeks, we're way behind on bills this month and money saved for rent. So this is exacerbating the situation.

We need to get a mini-van, these problems have been coming up more often, but I don't think we can afford to buy one until we get our tax refund next year.