You know you've “made it” as a large family when other families mistake your personal vehicle for the school bus.
And this year I’m proud to say we finally reached that unintentional goal!
During a very snowy day my husband was heading down our road on his way to take our children to school. As he passed our neighborhood park he saw a minivan stopped along the side. He slowed to ensure there was nothing wrong with the woman’s vehicle and that she wasn’t stuck in the snow. And when she seemed to be fine, he continued down the road. After he passed her, however, she began to follow him very closely and honking her horn.
At first he thought that there must be something wrong with our van, but everything seemed in order-- no smoke, no blown tires, and with the snow like it was, he thought it best to continue at least to the next stop sign further down the road.
Well, she kept following, and kept honking, until they reached the intersection, a half mile down. At that point, while my husband stopped at the sign, with one more furious honk of the horn, the gal turned right and sped off down a side street.
My husband, when he told me the story, couldn’t figure out why she acted so crazy, but I knew immediately what was going on.
The neighborhood park is the bus stop for ALL the neighborhood busses for all the schools. During bad weather, the moms will just park there waiting for the busses, so that their kids don’t have to stand in the rain or snow. Likely, when she saw our white passenger van through the snow, and then when my husband slowed down next to her, she assumed he was one of the bus company’s shuttles that they use for smaller routes. And then when he continued off, she must have assumed he was just some jerk bus driver intentionally leaving her kid behind.
I wonder if, at some point, the woman will recognize our van around the neighborhood and realize her mistake! Probably not. And I guess in the future we'll just have to be extra careful where we park our van, so we don't unintentionally find ourselves with an extra kid in the back seat, expecting us to take him to school.
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