J now travels to school via the transport service run by the local council.
He is collected and dropped off in a mini van with around 3 other children (depending on what day it is).
He loves it.
When I am on the school collection for O, the van drives past the road I park on and I often see him going past.
I wave every time, and all I get, if he has noticed me, is a look with the eyes. No ackowledgement, no excitment, just an " oh it's you" look.
I can remember four years ago when I had to conceed that he needed to be taken to his old school by transport as it was a journey of approximately fifty minutes each way and times that by four trips per day and it was getting tiring trekking out with a new born baby O, stopping to feed him (as newborns need mummy milk very often in the early days.
The guilt I felt was immense. But he was fine with it.
In fact I think he preferred to go with the transport people as he was'nt subjected to my singing along to the songs on the radio.
I am hoping that the proposed cut to school transport (in my area) will not go ahead and will not be extended to all aged children and nationwide.
I need to utilise the service now as I cannot be in two places at once for school collection.
If it came down to me having to drive him as the government cut yet another disability facility, he would be late for school in the morning, and I would be late in collecting him in the afternoon.
Yes I could pay for someone to collect either him or his brother, but where is that money coming from? Raising a child with a disability is a drain financially as it is, so paying for someone to collect him is not within my budget. Family do not live close by at all - the closest is around 80 miles away now from me.
So will the crack team of government truancy teams be on my case? Will they be threatening me with a fine or a prison sentence if I continue to fail to drop him at school at the correct time and not collect him at the correct time? Or will they threaten to stop his disability allowance as punishment? All of those have been carried out in the past on other people as reported in the newspapers so it is not just a load of hot air I am spouting.
What a wonderful predicament to be in. One can only hope the think tank and focus groups who are deciding on this new measure actually think about the reality and facts and not just the amount of money they can save and plough into silly ventures such as the latest 're-branding' of the Asbo.
