Know what guarantees a bad day?  Having to see your 5 year old wearing bus safety harness that makes him look like a parachutist caught in a tree.

This happened yesterday and it was a hard afternoon for me.

Pookie rides a bus to preschool, a regular yellow school bus, with lapbelts.  On the way to school, he likes to sit in the way back row, on the drivers side.  He has ridden the bus for almos 2 years and things have gone well. He wet his pants on the bus once or twice.  He refuses to wave to me in the window.  But, all in all, an OK experience. 

On the Monday and Tuesday after Spring Break he was naughty on the bus.  He unbuckles his seat belt.  He stood on his seat and leaned over the seat in front.  He changed seats, he crawled on the floor.  He had done this type of thing one other time this year, but I talked to him and he stopped.  His actions on Tuesday really freaked out the bus driver.  She is a nice lady, but she (understandably) got upset when he stood on the seat and tried to sommersault over the seat in front of him. 

So, the transportation department called me and they recommended that he wear a harness on the bus.  Recommended, but really demanded because if he refuses and does it one more time, they will deny him bus service.  It was right after Spring Break and I know he is a bit more animated this week because he is not back into his routine yet. So, I thought if we talked to him it would settle down and we would not need to do the harness.  I figured by the time they got their act together and got the harness he would be behaving.

Well, the bus driver showed up yesterday with the harness.  Less than 24 hour turn around.  We agreed to let him ride to school in the harness, but wanted to talk to the transportation department about options.  This harness is a canvas vest with 4 steel rings, one at each shoulder and one at each hip.  The steel rings clip on to hooks mounted on the seat.  So, he is literally bolted to the bus seat.  He could not even move to touch his shoes.  Its not a nice thing to see your kid in.  But, the transportation people said it was the only option.

I made some phone calls and got the transportation people to hear me out.  I explained that we did not want the harness because we wanted him to learn to behave without props.  He never misbehaves in a car and actually never misbehaves on the afternoon bus, just that route.  The transportation director understood our goals.  I asked her if I could sew a sleeve for the seat belt buckle.  I think that if the buckle is covered, he won’t mess with it.  They agreed to let us try.

So, last night Pookie and I went to the fabric store and got some sturdy twill and some velcro.  I made a sleeve to wrap around the seat belt buckle and hide it.  I tucked the sides, so that the unit won’t slide off the seat belt.  We also talked to him about being naughty on the bus.  I do not intend to show him the seat buckle cover or really even talk about it with him.  I do not want him to get too comfortable with it.  I will put it on every day and the teacher will take it off when the bus gets to school.  I don’t want him to touch it at all.  I am hoping that it will be just enough interference to keep him from unbuckling the seatbelt and he will find something else to do on the bus to occupy his time. 

I really hope that it works.  I think it will.  I need it to.  I can’t bear to see him in that harness again.