Gotta Love Scheduling.....

.....all right -- forgive this vent, but this is something I just need to get off my chest, and this has become the place where I do that lately.

Starting on August 30, I have 3 children attending public schools. These children are 21 months 1 day apart (minus one and two minutes) oldest to youngest, yet they go to 3 different schools. This is no longer a real problem per se...I still would like to see the twins together, but I know that's not the right thing for now.

The problem has now become getting them all TO school. We live less than 0.5 miles from our home elementary school and Daniel is classified as a "walker". The other 2 take the bus (and different buses). I was looking forward to the start of the school year and walking Daniel to school. Then we got the letters from the transportation office.

First, let me start by saying, these letters arrived while the kids and I were out of town. Kevin opened them up (as they were addressed to him as well) and relayed this information to me over the phone,

Now, when the twins turned 3, we had some issues with the length of Rachel's bus ride -- they had her on the bus for 70 minutes to get to a school located a 20 minute drive away. I had MANY phone conversations with the bus depot and the autism office, emails flew in all directions, and we finally got that resolved after a few weeks. So, when Kevin told me that Rachel's bus ride was only going to be about 30 minutes, I WAS THRILLED!!!!!!!!! Then, he dropped the bomb.

First, he informed me that Simon's bus would be arriving a little later than we were accustomed to (shortly before 8:40). Then he dropped the real bomb -- Daniel had to be at school at 8:45. If he isn't there by 8:50, he's "tardy" and will have to deal with the consequences of it all (including having to check in the office every day that he's late). Simon's bus was often late last year because of traffic on the major road approaching our development (rarely more than 5 minutes). And we need to budget 10 minutes to walk to Daniel's school. Doing the math, we're in trouble.

I finally had a few minutes yesterday to contact the involved parties to see if I can work something out. I started with the Transportation Office to determine if they could change the route or even change the location of the pick-up (closer to Daniel's school), or maybe some other option that I hadn't thought of. Their answer was a very clear "NO". And to make matters more complicated on the timing aspect, he is now the last stop on his route (was previously the 2nd stop). This INCREASES the likelihood of the bus being late.

Then I called Daniel's school to find out options on that end. They will not permit me to drop him off prior to 8:30 for before school care. There is a private day care with whom I may be able to work something out, and I'll contact them in the next few days. But I can't drop him off with them until after Rachel's bus arrives. And I still have to be back here no less than 5 minutes prior to the scheduled arrival of Simon's bus.

So, once again, we have scheduling issues. I would have thought that we'd be past that by now, but I suppose as long as they're in different schools, the potential exists.

Still -- 7 more business days before school starts. The countdown is in full force.