Dealing with Do What You Do
The most challenging aspect of raising a toddler is the fact that at that age they are more “do what you do” people, rather than “do what you say”. Every attitude, gesture, habit, facial expression and utterance is promptly copied; whether you realize it or not.
Most of the children in my neighbourhood attend the same school; and naturally the parents preferred that they joined the school bus – it was a way for the kids, and the parents to get to know one another. In the third week of the new term, the school suffered an unfortunate event. The school bus for our route had been involved in an accident – a pretty bad one. Thankfully it had not been when the children were on the bus, but the driver had sustained very serious injuries and the car was quite in bad shape.
We parents met and decided to car pool until an alternative was provided by the school. On the day I was scheduled to take the kids to school, I woke up earlier and ensured my little girl was ready in good time. I then proceeded to pick up six more kids, as we had a mini bus and could accommodate more children. They obviously likened my car to their school bus, as they proceeded to sing nursery rhymes and barney songs on the way. As I drove out of the gated community and joined the work day traffic, I noticed that the children would let out some expressions if I had to maneuver through traffic to get ahead.
I heard expressions like “shuooo”, “stop there”, “you no go wait?”, and the worst, “oloshi” as I drove. I was a bit bothered by these expressions and wondered where they had picked them up from. I asked my daughter where they had heard all those words they were saying and she promptly belted out, “from Mr. Sani”. The children then proceeded to fill my ears with their various opinions on Mr. Sani’s driving. How fast he moved, how he maneuvered- with the sound effects. I was shocked. No wonder he had had an accident.
As I drove into the school I made a quick call to the office to let them know I would be in a little late because I had to have this “Mr. Sani” issue sorted out. I met with the head teacher and brought to her notice all that I had learned on our drive to school. She was very apologetic and promised to look into it. I advised that all the school bus drivers be appraised, since they spend time around the kids, it was important to ensure they were good influence. I made a note on my phone to bring this up officially during the PTA meeting; not just about drivers using bad words; we also needed to be certain these men are not reckless, or child molesters, kidnappers or robbers.
The school had to put in place a more stringent means of appraising their staff to ensure the safety of our children. I would make sure of that.
Photo Source: www.allisontransmission.com
