Today We Missed the Buses
Photo by Juan Carlos Becerra on UnsplashThis morning we missed the buses, and no, that’s not a typo. We have 4 buses to catch in the morning; or 1 bus, 2 minibuses, and 1 minivan, to be precise. This morning we missed 2 of them, which meant I was the driver for 4 of our kids.
We have 6 of them, kids that is. The oldest is 10, the youngest is 4. We have identical twins who are 5, one of them has CP (cerebral palsy). No complaints. We love them!
So, here’s what happened: Last night I went to sleep late, which I tend to do all too often. I rely on my wife to wake me in the morning. No point setting two alarms. But last night one of our twins kept her up. The one with CP. She tends to wake up real early and cry, but sometimes she wakes up all through the night. This was one of those nights.
I’m a deep sleeper. I sleep through most things, grinding my teeth through them. I need my sleep, particularly because I’m a deep thinker. I need to be deep in my dreams, the way I like to be deep in my thoughts. It takes my wife a while to snap me out of them, but she usually does the job.
However, my wife ignored her alarm this morning. She’s a light sleeper. She will hear almost anything. She’s the type of person you can ask if she is sleeping, and she will answer yes, because she was sleeping. And then she’ll be asleep again, unless you ask her another question.
That’s probably what she did with her alarm. The alarm signaled her to wake up, so she woke up, but then she went back to sleep. What woke her up the second time was likely the minibus honking, the one for our twin daughter. Too late, though, she wasn’t ready on time.
I heard that one, both the honk and my wife screaming in response. I heard it begrudgingly, but then went back to sleep, or at least I tried to. My wife, on the other hand, got straight to work, preparing our CP twin for kindergarten, which is a tough job.
Our CP daughter’s driver and child escort arrived half-way through her morning preparations, which require about 15 minutes of intensive labor. They waited. That one is the minivan, and our daughter is their only passenger. She provides employment for both of them, so the least they could do was wait.
Meantime though, our three older kids missed their school bus. That’s my job, to get them all ready, along with our other twin and sometimes even our youngest son. I get them ready and then run with them to the bus stop. But the second I heard that first honk and my wife’s response, I realized it was already too late, so what’s the point? I went back to sleep.
The last honk, which ended up being a series of honks, was for our youngest son. They honked a few times and called my wife. My wife said he’s not ready yet, and she rushed to get him ready. The child escort did us the favor of coming to the house to get him. What a relief.
They all go to school and preschool a good drive away from home. Missing the bus can be a real headache, especially with traffic, not to mention the loss for the kids and the frustration of the teachers. No one likes when people are late.
The morning stress can be intense. Sometimes it helps to sleep through it. I made up for this day’s misdeed by being the bus driver.
[image error]Today We Missed the Buses was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
