Friday, January 20, 2006

Comforting

Yesterday I went on a field trip to the opera with Kira's fourth grade class. It was part of this excellent program. Seated a few rows in front of me on the school bus was another mom, and as we started to drive away from the school she turned around to talk to the two boys who were seated behind her (but loud enough so that most of the 66 kids on the bus could hear):

"I've always wondered why school buses don't have seat belts. Cars have seat belts, so why don't we? Isn't it weird, how we are just sitting here, nothing holding us down? I mean, if we got in an accident and this bus were to tip over, we'd fly out of our seats! We would all just go flying out the windows! We'd all be dead! THINK ABOUT IT!

I mean, not like anything is going to happen."

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6 comments:

  1. Wow. did she tell them all about Bird Flu, and Mad Cow Disease after that?

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  2. I hope she gave them the STD talk too. Get em good and scared. (Though I must admit to confusion as to why there are no seatbelts on buses).

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  3. I have thought of this as I take the bus to work too. Especially when I took one that went on the highway where we were travelling at top speeds and we're standing up holding onto the bars above our heads. There's no dash, no "crash pillows" either.

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  4. I too have had those thoughts, but not during a time when I want to scare a shitload of 9 year olds about the mortality of their futile lives.

    I mean, what did you see? Medea?

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  5. My brother used to blurt out stuff like that if we were driving over a bridge. "What if ... what if all these cars are too heavy and the bridge collapses?" Of course he was a child at the time, though...

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  6. Brilliant! Scare the c*ap ouf of the kids when there's nothing they can do about it.

    That has actually always bothered me too. Surely it is just cheapness on the part of the bus manufacturers, and who knows what shenanigans on the political end that it's not required, like car seat belts. I mean, these are out KIDS. What IS up with that?

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