Mom Picks Up Son From First Day of Middle School—Makes Unforgivable Mistake
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A mom's well-intentioned plan to make her son's first day of middle school smooth and stress-free took an unexpected turn when she found herself trapped in the school's bus lane—just as dozens of yellow buses began to arrive.
Julie Robertson, who shared her experience on Reddit under the handle u/Amazing_Bluebird, was eager to help her 12-year-old navigate a big transition. She told Newsweek: "I knew going to a new school—especially a large middle school was already going to be intimidating, I wanted him to at least be relieved that he wouldn't also have to find his bus on the first day.
"Like normal, everything was a bit chaotic in the morning. I looked at the map that the school provided and drove to the area where his group was supposed to go, I noticed that all the cars were dropping their kids off in a particular line that the buses were also using. 'Great! I'm glad I followed the cars,' I thought."
Robertson's story struck a chord online, racking up over 12,000 upvotes on the subreddit "Mildly Infuriating."
She explained that when pickup time rolled around later that day, she wasn't sure when to arrive or where exactly to line up.
Given the hectic morning traffic, Robertson—a single mom, full-time college student, and newcomer to the city—decided to go early to make sure she didn't miss her son. "I wanted him to be proud of me and feel secure that his mom would always be there," she said.
Robertson, who is studying kinesiology with hopes of pursuing a doctorate in occupational therapy, accidentally pulled into the same loop she had used for drop-off—only to realize, too late, that she was in the middle of the bus lane.
"I circled around the curve, and by the time I reach the end I noticed buses... I started to panic because there was no way to go around them," she said. "I thought, 'Oh no! I'm trapped, quick, ask the man standing outside of a bus!'"
When she asked the staff member if it was the pickup lane, he replied, "Nope!" and had just begun to suggest a way out when the buses began arriving en masse. "A holy hell amount of buses piled up behind me. I'd never seen anything like it!" she recalled. "It was at that moment, I knew I'd f***** up."
To make matters worse, Robertson began worrying that her son wouldn't know where to find her—or worse, think she had forgotten him. Students aren't allowed to use phones, leaving her with no way to communicate.
An image showing driver Julie Robertson stuck in a long line of school buses when trying to pick up her son.
An image showing driver Julie Robertson stuck in a long line of school buses when trying to pick up her son.
Julie Robertson/Julie Robertson
Soon, another staff member approached the car. "She asked me who I was, where I lived, and several questions in rapid succession," Robertson said, noting that the timing of the interrogation only intensified her embarrassment as dozens of middle schoolers began flooding out of the building.
"I thought for sure as soon as he saw me he would freeze, a giant orange car in the middle of a hundred yellow buses isn't exactly something you could easily hide."
But to her surprise, the students took notice of her car—and they were impressed. "Hey, nice car, can I get a ride?" one student yelled. "Cool car!" shouted another.
"As the buses started moving out the boys hung out the window and shouted, 'Rev it! Rev it!' I knew then that I was probably saved from my shame," Robertson said.
Eventually, the staff member returned to inform her that her son had been found and she could collect him once the buses cleared. "I pulled into the parking lot to pick up my son and yes, he already found out about my blunder. And miraculously he found it hilarious. I had never been so relieved in my life."
Reddit Reacts
Many Reddit users related to the chaos of school drop-offs and pickups.
"Drop off and pickup at my very large high school were both like this, it was absolute insanity every morning and afternoon despite all attempts to divert traffic, and parents, bus drivers, and students would all be total d**** to each other bc of the traffic," one user wrote.
"This was why it became my habit to hang out with friends for like 15–30 minutes every day after school when I got my license," shared u/LilPotatoAri. "My school was deeply over crowded and it was just way too much of a risk to my car to be on the road right after school."
Another chimed in: "Holy busses Batman! How many kids go to this school?!?"
"Seems normal for the high school I went to. My graduating class had 2,000 kids in it. The school had over 5,000," one person noted.
"This blows my mind, in the small town I graduated high school in, we had maybe 11,000 people living there. Your school had half my town's whole population wtf," added another.
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