Both Sides Now

When I was growing up there was a Joni Mitchell song titled "Both Sides Now". The chorus went like this:

Ive looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down,
and still somehow
Its cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

After this week I've decided I really don't know parents at all.

1. We do not let Kinders and 1st graders off the bus in the afternoon if an adult is not at the bus stop to meet them. A Elementary parent fought this last year. Took it all the way to the Associate Superintendent. Were she was given permission to let her Kinder student walk home alone from the bus stop. The parent cannot see the bus stop from her house. The student walks from the bus stop across to residential streets and through a greenbelt to get home. This year the same parent went to the Principal to make sure her 2 girls (kinder & 1st grade) can walk home from the bus stop alone. So basically she doesn't want to get her girls, and if anything happens to them it will, of course, be our fault.

2. I got a call this afternoon form the parent of a 4th grade CATS student. Her daughter is to start riding the bus on Monday. She is physically sick because she cannot believe we expect her daughter to walk so far to the bus stop. The girl has to walk to the end of her street and up to the next street (all residential). She will have to pass 10 houses. This mother does not left her child play outside alone. So how can I expect her to walk that far at 7:15 in the morning. It is just not safe. She lives in a very nice neighborhood.

3. I got a new transportation request for a Priority student (3 to 5 yrs old) because the family had moved. I called the parent and told her she was no longer in that schools boundaries. That the area they moved to feeds into a different school that is much closer to their new home. She wanted him to stay at the old school. She didn't care that the new school was much closer, after all he would be riding the bus. So it didn't affect her. That was until I told her we could not provide transportation to the old school from the new address. Some people think of the bus ride as free daycare.

4. I often get calls from parents that are upset by the length of their child's bus ride. After all they only live 10 minutes from the school. They don't understand that 6 other children are also 10 minutes from the school. So when you go by for everyone it takes 30 minutes to get to school.

So I guess what I am saying is:

Ive looked at parents from both sides now
From up and down,
and still somehow
Its parent illusions I recall
I really don't know parents at all !!