Transiting to Primary One is a big deal for kids. It's the beginning of formal education in Singapore and for many of the kids, it's their first encounter with serious and intensive studying. Apart from the kid feeling the stress and heat, the parents usually get stressed up and nervous as well, especially if it's the first time for them. I started this series to document the chronological order of events, my intimate thoughts and emotions on this journey, and it will continue until Joey settles down in Primary One. Hopefully, as we go along, the posts would become more and more positive and encouraging. I do believe in that. :)

Tuesday
26 February 2013
11.55pm

While I was in Hong Kong, a very scary saga happened at home.

I received a whatsapp message from my mother-in-law at about 7pm, telling me to contact the school bus because she was slightly late at picking up my daughter and when she reached the pick-up point, she saw the bus leave but my daughter did not alight. She thought that the school bus was going to make a detour and come back again so she waited for 30 minutes before messaging me.

I panicked because I didn't bring the school bus company's contact along with me to Hong Kong! But thank God, hubby reminded me that I had called the company some time the previous week and it could still be in my phone's log. Found it, called the company and they contacted the school bus, only to tell me the news that totally freaked me out: They had alighted my daughter more than half an hour ago at 6.35pm.

How could it be so??? My MIL didn't see my daughter! Where could she be??!! I screamed over the phone at the bus company, asking them how could they be so irresponsible to alight a 7-year-old girl by the roadside?? Are they going to be held responsible if my daughter went missing?? The lady explained that my daughter had told them to let her alight, because her grandmother told her that in case of any emergency when she didn't turn up to pick her, she was to take the lift home and wait for her. I got even more furious hearing that - "HOW COULD YOU LISTEN TO WHAT A KID TELLS YOU??? SHE'S ONLY SEVEN YEARS OLD, FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!!" I think my friends who were with me on the trip had never seen such a hysterical me before. =P

We quickly called my MIL, and asked her to go back home. Those few minutes of waiting for her to rush home felt sooooooooooo long. I think my face was white and I totally hyperventilated.

Thankfully, my daughter was indeed back home. She took the lift by herself and realising that she didn't have the home keys with her, decided to play with our neighbour instead. It was a big scare for all of us, but we were just glad she was okay. I immediately tried to Facetime with her, but the connection was very bad. Even so, I managed to catch a glimpse of her face (really tired and sweaty though) and it helped calm my nerves a little.

When I got back from Hong Kong, I understood the whole story from Joey. Apparently, my MIL had prepared her that in case anything cropped up, and she was late to pick her up, she was not to be afraid. She should ask the bus lady to bring her across the road and she could take the lift up the our home and wait there. So that was what she did. But because she could only remember my mobile number and did not want to call me since I was in Hong Kong (thinking it would cost a bomb, this poor girl), she could not call anyone else and could only just wait (and play with my neighbour's kid). My mother-in-law saw the school bus leave but did not see Joey, so she assumed she was still on the bus, when in actual fact, she had walked so fast and was probably back at our block already by then. It was a huge saga that freaked out all of us, and it definitely spoilt that night in Hong Kong for me. My heart was pounding so fast the entire night. Sigh

I took school bus when I was in Primary One too - How come I didn't have such problems last time??!