Muffins with Mom – What happens when your teen misses the school bus? – 3 solutions to fix the problem



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What happens when a teen misses the school bus? He has to find another way to school. Sometimes this means mom has to change her routine and drive her precious child to school. Even it means she is at risk of being late herself.

There are other times when a teen misses the bus and he is left to resolve the situation himself. Last week when my son missed the bus, he rode his bike the few miles to school. I never saw the bike come back home. My son said he left the bike at a friend’s house.

As fate would have it, after a long night of forced studying (by me), my son missed the bus a second time that week. I was not home to drive him to school. Luckily for him, his brother’s bike lay dormant in the garage waiting for a rider. Mission accomplished! My son made it to school on time…but the week wasn’t over.

At the end of the week, I entered my son’s bedroom in an attempt to wake him before I left for work. The response I got was in the form of a grunt and moan. I turned a light on hoping to arouse the sleeping ogre, but he rolled over and put the blanket over his head.

Sources told me that he missed the bus again. What’s a parent to do?

In an article at Parenting Teens Online, three solutions were given to help resolve the issue of teens missing the bus.

Here they are –

1.      Don’t fix the problem for your teen – If your teen is habitually late or misses the bus quite often, it’s not helpful to always come to the rescue. You could suggest he call a cab or if you drive him to school, don’t excuse his tardy. He will have to deal with the consequences of the school policy for unexcused tardies.

2.      Forget about nagging – Set a schedule – Set a time for your teen to power down in preparation for bed (no TV, video games, etc.).

3.      Take away some privileges; Offer some incentives – if your teen doesn’t care about being late, use something he cares about as your bargaining tool. After his behavior changes/improves over time, offer incentives for the positive behavior.

What will happen is my teen missies the school bus again? We still have a friend’s bike left in the garage.

How do you handle a habitually late child or teen?