Gift Ideas For Your School Bus Driver

I don't believe in giving an end-of-school -ear gift to every person in your child's academic life. However, one person I do acknowledge is the school bus driver. I trust this driver every singlebday with the life of my child. In traffic. In snow. In rain. In ice. This (very minimally paid) person has a great responsibility. And I appreciate that. Which is why I have a few gift ideas for your school bus driver...

One year I called my bus company asking if I could speak to someone about my bus driver. "All reports should be in writing" said the manager. "But I want to tell you how great our driver is!" I responded. The manager was shocked. "No one has ever called to say anything good about a driver before". I ended up sending an email — writing a glowing letter about how our bus driver went above and beyond the call of duty — and this letter then ended up in the company-wide newsletter (our bus driver was amazed at the appreciation). Good bus drivers deserve it.

On to the gift ideas...

• Have your children draw their school bus on yellow construction paper with a big THANK YOU written on it.
• Have your child cut and colour a school bus (there are tons of free school bus templates on the web).
• Give them a gift card to a book store, grocery store or movie.
• Give them a tool kit with driving essentials (tic tacs, note pad, pencil, band aids, maybe sunglasses or gloves).
• Give them a cd to play on the bus.
• Give them a box of chocolates to enjoy after a hard day of driving your kids to and from school.

Do NOT give them a bottle of wine (My famous bus driver once confided a kindergarten kid boarded the bus with a bottle of wine for him...1) young kids shouldn't be carrying booze and 2) drinking and driving is illegal

I wouldn't want the job of driving kids to and from school every day (it's a really tough job!). It takes someone with patience, reliability, and loyalty. 

We should show our kids these qualities deserve recognition.