WTF????

I have been having my usual nights of insomnia, and a few nights over the last two weeks, I haven't slept at all. Last night was one of them. So at 4:45am, I went to the grocery store. I knew I was meeting a friend for an early breakfast, so I figured I might as well get something done since I wasn't sleeping.

So, my groceries are in my car and I am driving home, it is now about 5:40am. I see some flashing lights on what I thought was a truck ahead of me, until I got closer and realized it was a school bus. On it's route. Picking up children. At 5:40am in the morning. WTF???

I rode the school bus when I was younger and it was always daylight when I waited for the bus, thank you very much, and it was hours after 5:40am, I can tell you that.

I couldn't believe it when I saw that the bus was stopped and a lone 9 or 10 year old walked across a DARK, busy road to board the school bus before 6am. Let's think about that. To be ready for the bus at 5:40am, that child probably got up no later than 5am. That means that by lunchtime at school, that child will have been up and involved in "school" really for 7 hours. I just think that is asking a lot for kids.

Some of you may have kids that get picked up this early, maybe you can explain it to me, but it breaks my heart. I talk to friends who talk about the 4 and 5 hours of home work that are being loaded on kids that are half the age I was when I got that level of homework, and I just think we are taking away their childhoods piece by piece. I am not a parent, so maybe you all think I am off my nut, but hell, I don't even get up to go to work at 5:00am; it just seems a bit much.