Loosen up the reigns

THE TONAWANDAS - Now that the colder weather is approaching us, some Ken-Ton residents (parents too be exact) are starting to realize the changes that were made to bus routes in the district. This is due to their children having to walk to school unsupervised and now cold while they are walking.

To those residents who were unaware of these changes, yes the residents voted and agreed to this change.

Is it really that big of a deal?

Don’t get me wrong. The safety of the children is also a concern of mine, however, your children are not the first children to have to walk to school.

I realize I haven’t been out of school long enough to make the statement, “When we were in school we had to walk for miles in a blizzard, with plastic bags taped over our feet.” But, we (as in the majority of adults in Western New York), have all had to endure a walk to school on a rainy, cold morning.

Whether that was walking a few blocks or a few miles, we made it to school safely.

As someone who was not an early bird as a child, I often missed my bus and didn’t have a spare bike laying around to get to school. So, when both of your parents head to work early in the morning, you miss the bus and your neighbors aren’t around... what do you do? You walk to school.

Sometimes I wonder if parents are a little too over protective these days.

The reason I learned how to solve problems and find my way in life is because I didn’t have my parents at my beckoning call to solve those problems for me.

After I held my father’s hand the first time I learned to look both ways and cross the road, I put two and two together and figured out how to do it on my own. I have been crossing the road on my own for years now. Go figure, right?

Let your children figure this stuff out, too.

I have to assume that the Superintendent of Ken-Ton Schools Mark Mondanaro wouldn’t have supported this decision is he thought the students weren’t going to get to school safely.

The alternative, although I find these types of accommodations to be unnecessary, is to find your children a ride to school every morning. If you can’t so it yourself, and you can’t trust that your children can accomplish the walk safely, then find someone who can get them there safely.

Things are so different these days.

We all sit back an question why “kids are the way they are today?” But, maybe we need to start assessing the way they are being raised.

Are your children actually afraid of walking to school alone? Are they really that cold?

Or could those concerns, just be your concerns and not theirs?