Second Time's the Charm!

Today we went to my brother's house for a BBQ. We had a great time. Thanks Gato Negro! (that's what he wants his alias to be :) )

Last time we went to Gato Negro's house, which is 15 miles round trip, we had a park and ride disaster. We missed the bus on the way home, and we ended up getting a ride home in 2 different cars. Today we valiently tried the same trip, but with success!

Here's what we did:

We parked on the street near a bus stop (total driving: 2 miles). We took the bus across town and then walked 2 blocks to my brother's house. My kids like the bus, it was on time, and the weather was very pleasant, so it was quite enjoyable. The trip there took about 40 minutes and included 3 types of transportation (driving, riding the bus, walking). On the way, my kids tickled each other and my son pointed to someone asking for money on the street -- "Look! He's poor." Luckily, he did not point to anyone on the bus and say the same thing, because that would have been awkward.

We had to time our departure a little bit. We could either leave immediately after my dad, or wait another hour. We left right after him because the little one was getting pretty cranky. We had some trouble finding the bus stop on the other side of the street, but we had allotted some extra time, so it was not a problem. We walked four blocks on the way back. The bus was right on time, and dropped us off across the street from our car. In all, the return trip took about 45 minutes, about 10 of it spent waiting for the bus.

I think the key to something like this working is to not be in a hurry. I like riding the bus with my kids better than driving with them in the car. It takes longer, but it feels like time we are actually together. In the car, I can't really see them and often can't really hear them. We have 3 car seats in the back of a compact car, so everybody's squished and often poking each other. The bus is roomier, more interesting (?) and we can actually talk to each other. My son also points out all the poor people* that he sees. I'm not really sure what to think about that.

*Austin has a pretty large homeless population (Austin Health and Human Services estimates 3625). Every day my children see people on the streets with signs asking for money/work. They also see people sleeping and living under bridges. I have talked about this with my kids to some extent, but I'm not sure how deep to get into the problem. My kids think of all these people as "poor people" and always want to give them money. Obviously, they are not just poor, but my children are pretty young, so I haven't gone really in-depth.