Sending your 12 year old on a London city bus....

There are so many things that I have wanted to post about in the past few weeks.
But where has the time gone?
I'm hopeful that in the dark days of the late autumn and through the winter I'll catch up on this blog!  I've been keeping a list of all the things I want to post.


Well, here's the latest.
Dave is back in the US this week for work.  Running the household solo means coming up with creative ways to juggle the kids. Those creative ways might push my comfort zone, but after all, that is what happens in parenting.

Jonah had a soccer game at about the same time that Ally had swim team practice.  For his last soccer game, we took a city bus to the fields.  Two of his teammates were riding the bus to the game also - alone, on the city bus.  OK, I said, must be somewhat safe and possible for a 12 year old to ride the bus alone.  Many London children take public transport to and from school alone at age 11.  Was I going to be comfortable with Jonah doing so?  Time to find out.

I walked him to the bus stop and watched him get on the bus.

The Importance of a Mobile Phone.
We just picked up a reasonable phone for Jonah (and sometimes Ally) to use a few days ago.  This has become a necessity. There were a couple of unfortunate situations which could have been avoided because even I did not have a phone until a few weeks ago.  I'll have to write about those later.

Upon reaching the fields, Jonah was to call me, and he did!  He got there just fine.  When the game was done, he called me again to let me know he was getting on the bus to come home. 

He made it back to our house safe & sound. 
Another successful adventure for the Larsons in London.