We live on a pretty busy corner, and we are less than a quarter mile up the hill from the middle school where Number 3 goes to school.
He takes the bus in the morning, but in the afternoons he walks home because the bus company won’t let him cross the street at the top of the hill and he’d have to ride on the bus for forty minutes and be the last kid dropped off just to get a few hundred feet up the road.
Plus it’s good for him to walk home.
But like I said, the corner we live on is pretty busy. So Number 3 crosses the street down at the bottom of the hill by the school and walks up to our house on the shoulder, because I don’t feel all that comfortable about him walking on the road.
It snowed this weekend and the side of the road is pretty snowy, so yesterday I drove down to school to pick Number 3 up. I thought about making him take boots to school, but I knew that would have been a battle, plus, he’s been really good about walking, so I told him I’d get him.
Today he asked me if I’d pick him up again. I told him he could walk on the road just this one time, and he said to me, “No, Mom! People are always looking at their phones! Every day when I walk home I see at least 5 people who are texting! They don’t even see me on the road. I DON’T WANT TO GET KILLED!!!”
Well that got to me.
Big time.
I don’t know what I’d do if some motherfucker hit my kid because they were looking at their phone.
I don’t text while I drive.
But I’ll be honest.
If I hear the beep of a text or a message, I’ll look at my phone to see who it is, and depending on who/what it is, I’ll read it.
And I thought I was being kind of stealth about it, but when we were talking about it at breakfast, Number 4 said, “Mom doesn’t text when she drives!”
To which Number 3 said, “Yeah, but she looks at her phone sometimes.”
Yikes. Busted.
So I’m pledging right now to keep my phone in my purse until I’ve reached my destination.
Because while I may not have been texting, I’ve still been reading. And I’ve been distracted. And I’ve been a potential motherfucker.
And I can’t very well get pissed at other people who could seriously injure (or kill) my son when I’m doing the same thing myself now, can I?
Oh, and now that I’m a reformed phone checker in the car, watch out.
If I see you coming around the corner looking at your phone and putting my son in harm’s way, I’m going to kick your f*cking ass.
CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT MY RUN IN THE BOSTON MARATHON
My husband is a tractor trailer driver. He says that it is constant, everywhere, and every single person does it. (Use phone while driving)
I love my husband and he is a good dad.
I want him to come home st the end of the day.
Put the @$÷#$$–ing phone DOWN.