Every morning starts the same. My alarm clock goes off for the fourth time and I finally turn it off and struggle to open my eyes halfway. I somehow dig up enough energy to drag myself out of bed and into the shower. After my shower, I go upstairs to wake up the littlest sleepy monster. After making sure she has clothes that match to wear to school, I go back downstairs to get her breakfast ready. Breakfast is usually a bagel, cereal, yogurt or toast. During breakfast, I make my daughter's lunch. Then I shuffle around trying to get her hair brushed, my books ready for my own school and remember 2 minutes before show time, that I still need to brush my teeth. Then we hop in the car and complain how cold it is, and I explain for the umpteenth time that the car has to warm up too.
Yesterday,I woke up to the same routine as normal. We dragged ourselves out of bed and somehow managed to get ready and out the door in time. I pulled in the car rider's line at my daughter's school to drop her off. The director said, "unload your cars" a sign to the parents, that it was safe to let their kids out.
Well, my child is five. Not that her being five is an excuse, but anyone who has had a five year old knows that they're not always 100% focused on the task at hand. She was moving as quickly as she could to get out of the car. Every day, I watch her get out and walk safely into the doors of the school. Yesterday, she said, "you have a good day too mommy!" I guess in the 3 seconds it took her to tell me that, the director assumed all the kids had been unloaded and as my daughter was walking around the corner in front of the cars, she instructed the cars to move forward.
You've heard when people are about to get in car accidents..it's like slow motion? Well, I know that for a fact because I've been in a car accident, and also because yesterday morning as I watched my daughter walk in front of those cars across the cross walk and that lady instructed the cars to move forward....the whole world stopped. My heart which was beating it's normal early morning, I just woke up heartbeat had now shoved a hole through my body, leaped out and was running after my little girl. The director finally realized that there was another person that needed to cross and stopped the cars, and I detoured to the principals office..in shock over what had just happened.
Do you know what else happened the other day?
Place: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Time: After school
A school bus driver had woken up that morning, same time, same place, same routine. Expecting a normal every day school day. After school, on his normal route, that school bus driver was reaching out his hand to open the Stop sign on the side of his bus as he did every time he made a stop. He turned on his lights to signal oncoming traffic to stop, just as he had done every morning and evening. A little boy, six years old...woke up that morning at the same time, ate his breakfast, brushed his teeth and got on that bus to go to school like every other day. He had a normal school day and was on his way home. As he got off the bus and crossed the street, a woman, ignoring the buses lights and bright red stop sign, raced through, hitting the little boy and killing him instantly. She was arrested and charged with negligent homicide and that little boy will never wake up sleepy eyed again, will never rush to get dressed and brush his teeth. He'll never kiss his mommy goodbye as he heads out the door to catch the bus. All because, one person decided they didn't have to follow rules.
We wake up every day, thinking our day is going to run on time, on schedule, normal. We just don't know what each day brings.
Why are we in such a hurry? Can't we take an extra 5 seconds a day to make sure our kids are safe?
5 seconds can do a lot....if he had taken 5 extra seconds getting off the bus, maybe the lady would have missed him like the car missed my daughter yesterday.
And the world wonders why there are overprotective parents? Because you're in too much of a rush to get your latte before work that you didn't notice the blinking signs of a school bus.
mer magic...
9 hours ago














