It was like a chain reaction. Link number one: Sixth grade son is in a school that for many reasons (and with no malice aforethought) turned out to be the wrong place for him. So he's transferring to another school in the fall. It's much closer to home. He'll be able to take the Metro. Or even walk, if he gets up early enough.
Link number two: The new school is one of our "international schools," which means that, among other things, the kids take three years of a world language. Pretty exciting. Link number three: instead of picking something simple — say, Spanish, which I speak — he wants to take Japanese. OK, fine, but he has to do some serious catch-up. Link number four: we locate a really good tutor. She teaches in the evenings at the Central Library. Um. Gee. Hmmm... Downtown Seattle at rush hour? Parking downtown before the meters free up at 6? And then it hit me: wait! Our neighborhood bus route drops us right in front of the Central Library.
So, no problem. We got bus passes, we checked the online schedule, found out what time to leave home to catch the bus, and it's been working fine. Even the return trip isn't so bad, and we have two options for getting out of downtown.
There's just this: the entire tutoring "event" takes nearly three hours. 45 minutes each way on the bus. And 90 minutes of intense tutoring. And that's if we don't miss the 7:10 return bus, which we usually do. So make it more like 3-1/2 hours. It's worth every minute—Yukie is that good—but it's hard not to think of the 45 minute bus trip as wasted time.
And yet, it's not wasted. My thirteen year old is one of those adolescents who still likes hanging with his mom. He's not embarrassed to be seen with me, and he's generally cheerful and loving. He's interested in everything that goes on around him, and somehow riding the bus has turned into a special time for the two of us. It's a blessing. I'm looking forward to next month when he starts taking two lessons a week!
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I am like you, often thinking of time on the bus as wasted time, but it really isn't. At least not nearly as wasted as time spent driving in yucky traffic. At least I can read a book on the way home from work, or talk to my kids on the way to somewhere. But I still spend way too much time driving, mostly because taking all three kids on the bus at one time is a bit like inviting catastrophe. Or at least mayhem.
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