The case of the missing lunch box

Had a lovely parenting freak-out today. Got a call from LD's daycare that his lunch box wasn't there. Hmm... it was with him when he went to preschool this morning. Maybe it somehow didn't make it on to the bus. So, I called preschool and spoke to his teacher, who told me it was in his hands when he got on the bus. Great. Then, I called the bus company and gave them (what I thought was) LD's bus number -- they searched that bus and no lunch box. Then, the daycare director called and mentioned to me that she was a little concerned about the bus company, because on Tuesday, they went to give her the wrong child -- not LD. Errr... not quite what I wanted to hear about the transportation company I entrust with my child three days a week. She said she was concerned about it, and thought it might be worth a call to the school system. I agreed.

I called the school system and spoke to the transportation coordinator there (yes, there actually is such a person with that exact title :) ). He was quite concerned as well that that had happened, especially since LD's bus has only 4 kids on it and is considered a "special needs" bus (LD qualifies for that due to a speech delay and a wee bit of a sensory issue, go figure). So, yeah, even more troubling that the monitor of the bus doesn't have an idea of what kid goes where. He was going to call the school company and see what was going on.

In about a half hour, I got a call back from the transportation coordinator. He talked to the monitor and it turns out it was a simple mistake that was rectified immediately. She said that when they got to daycare, she got up and went to unbuckle the wrong child, but then noticed it right away and then went and unbuckled LD -- at no time were the kids off the bus. That made me feel a bit better, and I have a feeling the daycare director may have been overly cautious, which is fine by me! But, that was quite a fun couple of moments where I had these thoughts going through my head that LD might wind up being given to the wrong daycare or person. Oy!

In related news, I had the wrong bus number and the transportation coordinator had the right one. They checked that bus # and sure enough, the lunch box was still on it, so LD will get it back tomorrow morning -- they'll give the lunch box to his preschool teacher when she gets a child off the bus in the morning.