Driving the school bus driver

During this month of October - National Down Syndrome Awareness Month - I want to tell stories about living with Emily, to tell of how she made a difference in this world. She was a stone thrown in a pond, and the ripples have not disappeared. In this world - she was a small stone. In MY world, she was a crator!

  Except for a few months when there was a substitute driver,  Mary Mausey drove bus # 6.  Still does.  Emily rode that bus for 9 1/2 years. An hour to school and an hour back.  Some days, she saw Emily more than I did.  I can't praise Mary enough. She has the patience of Job!
   But this story is not about Mary, it's about the substitute. 
   A little back information about Emily.  Never underestimate a person with a disability.  To compensate for inabilities, unexpected talents are honed.  She couldn't read a paragraph in a book, but Emily was talented in reading people.  She loved without judgment, and blessed strangers that I looked away from in my social correctness.   In her inability to speak understandably, her behavrs were her way to communicate, and when she was bored, look out.  The bus ride was boring.
   Discipline: now, that's a well debated word among parents.  What's discipline? What's punishment? What's abuse?   In their of fear of being seen as abusive,  many parents have given up even good discipline and kids are left without boundries.  Anyway...   With Emily, I found that having a paddle around was a good motivator to change her behavior.  I rarely had to use that paddle, I just had to remind her that I would.
  Back to the substitute bus driver.  After a brief  honeymoon of good behavior for the new driver, Emily got  bored.  She talked loud, wiggled in her seat, bothered the kids in front of, behind and beside her.  The substitute complained to me, wrote out a ticket.  I told her about the paddle trick, and gave her one (the kind that a ball is attached to it with an elastic string).  The plan was that when Emily misbehaved, she would show it to Emily and remind her that Mommy would spank her when she got home.
  A week later, the driver complained again, Emily's behavior was worse, unacceptable.   I decided to remind Emily's bottom what the paddle felt like.  I asked the substitute to give me the paddle.  I would paddle her right where the  misbehavior was occurring.  She wouldn't give me the paddle.  I asked her again, and reluctantly, she gave it to me.  I was shocked, the thing was beat up, part was broken off.  "What happened to this paddle?" 
  The substitute told me that when Emily would misbehave, she would take out the paddle, show it to Emily, tell her that Mommy would spank her, and she would use the paddle on the door-open lever.
   By the look of the paddle, she must have given the door-open lever quite the spankings.
   Imagine Emily, bored on a one hour bus drive home, full of energy, after sitting in a classroom all day.  "What can I do to make that bus driver go looney?"  A behavior rewarded will repeat itself.  Apparently, for Emily, watching that bus driver was reward enough to outweigh any discipline that would follow.

Emily Visits the Shower

This is my favorite (I'll probably say that again) funny story about Emily.

   One afternoon, I decided to go visit a friend, and Emily went with me. We had been there about 30 min when Emily told me needed to go to the bathroom, which in itself was nothing new because  Emily was with bathrooms like a dog with fire hydrants, gotta visit  every one. Being old enough to go by herself, she went by herself.  10 minutes later, she still hadn't come back. We went to check on her.  She was in their shower, her clothes tossed in a pile on the floor.   I asked her "What are you doing?"  She looked at me like I was the silly one, wasn't it obvious? "she signed back "Shower."
  well, DUH