Friday 8 March 2024

End of school runs

At least the regular ones. Will still need to send and fetch Yu on days when his brothers do not need to go to school, for maybe another year...

In January, Yang and Yu started going to school on their own. This Monday, we stopped fetching them home.

Still remember when Kai and Yang first came home on their own. I put a GPS watch in Kai's bag. Now, the same watch is in Yang's bag. But I think I should switch it to Yu's bag.

Yang proved himself very capable last year, when he came home on his own after oral exams. One of us was supposed to fetch him from the bus stop downstairs but he was much earlier than expected so he walked back on his own. And when we were crossing the road to the MRT station recently, I saw him look out for cars.

But Yu is another story. While Kai is very focused on his destination and Yang would just follow, Yu likes to jump and run about, and chat with Yang ALL THE TIME. So I'm super scared they will get distracted.

These two when I fetched them on the day I had lunch in their school


I always have to remind them to stay behind the bollards, not just behind the yellow lines. Especially when coming home coz there are so many kids trying to board the bus! Yes, I'm paranoid this way - and many other ways!

Then Yu follows only Kai one day each week, as Yang has CCA on Mondays now that he has changed from badminton to art club. (Kai is peeved that Yu has no CCA - this year, the school didn't open CCAs for P2s - but that's another story.)

Yu is kind of fearful of being kidnapped due to two incidents. The first was during a Legoland trip last year. He went to the toilet and I waited for him outside; he no longer wants to go to the ladies with me. Later back at home, he told me that a guy in the toilet asked him where his parents were! I forgot his response - he either said outside or he ran out. Then - ok, my fault - I told him he must not run about in case he got kidnapped coz he's so cute!

The second incident was a couple of months back. They go to the playground downstairs on their own before dinner sometimes. They are supposed to go and return together but these kids like to rush to the lift and be the first to get to the bathroom *.* So once, Yu got into a lift without his brothers. A man was in the lift with him and asked him the same question. He quickly pressed 4 - that lift stops every four floors - and ran down the stairs to find Yang.

Now he's fearful of being kidnapped. Coz he thinks he's so cute, haha!

So on Monday, he was scared that Kai would, as usual, run ahead and leave him alone. We spoke to them in depth on Sunday and made Kai promise not to run off.

Sito also had to make Kai and Yu sit together during a rehearsal


Yang took the watch that day as he would be coming home on his own so I put Kai's phone in Yu's bag in case GeGe ran off and he needed to call us. But I couldn't track Yu. Turned out that the hi!card had been depleted. Strange coz we just topped up the week before for Kai to call us after tuition.

Sito topped it up remotely but within an hour, the value went down by $4! After checking, Sito found that data was very expensive! And somehow the phone eats data while idle. Or maybe coz I was tracking it. Anyway, now we decide to just put the watch in Yu's bag. Kai and Yang are very ok on their own now.

One thing I forgot about was that they sometimes take the train home instead of the bus. When they take the bus, they just need to cross one traffic light downstairs. When they take the train (coz they don't want to wait longer for that one bus home), they have to cross a carpark entrance/exit and a two-way road with a divider - no traffic lights etc.

Wa my heart...

Will have to continue to remind them about road safety. And to take care of each other especially when their hands are full of files!

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