Fighting the PR Battle with Parents Requires Some Understanding

By Ryan Gray

As children across the nation prepare for another school year, millions will be heading to school for the very first time. Kindergartners are notorious for envying bigger kids who seem to have all the independence and confidence in the world. Little do they know!

It makes me chuckle that these young students want so badly to grow up, eager to take on all of life's responsibility, when sometimes I want so badly to just go outside and play. But then I remember I felt the same way at that age, as do most of us.

Still, these kids are very young and oftentimes very small. The school bus could be a scary place ... with all of those big kids, all those big steps to climb. But a blog originating from Tallahassee, Fla., points out that it is oftentimes the parents who are the most scared. Despite her in-coming kindergartner desperately wanting to ride the bus (of course, because he is a big kid!), a mother is petrified that her son is too young to ride unattended. She questions if her child will be left on the bus or let off at the wrong stop. And there are plenty of comments from other mothers telling her not to do it!

Think about your own operation, if it even buses kindergartners, and how user friendly it is to not only your youngest riders but their parents? Do you take the time to find out if some of your new kids are first born, meaning their parents are probably sick to their stomach at the thought of turning their baby loose into the big, bad world.

Food for thought as the buses begin to roll out of the yard.