BSM goes on a school bus this year!
I don't know if things have changed since I was a kid in the US, but here in Israel there are generally 2 adults per school bus: (1) the bus driver and (2) the מלווה, which thank-you-Google-Translate is not an escort, but may translate to a bus monitor. The מלווה is the adult who helps the kids get on and off the bus and makes sure everyone is buckled up and reasonably well-behaved.
Husbinator and I discussed this brilliant Israeli system, reminiscing about our own experiences, wherein both roles were carried out by a single adult. We were happily chatting away until BSM piped up, asking what a fire drill was. (Interestingly enough, Husbinator never had a school bus fire drill.)
I immediately backed up the conversation, clarifying that Husbinator and I had been talking about American school buses, which are completely and totally different from Israeli school buses. Then I gave thought to fire drills. A few words into an explanation of Fire Drill Theory, I realized there's a much simpler way to explain fire drills to BSM.
"You know how they sometimes test the sirens, and people practice going to their bomb shelters? It's like that, but for practicing leaving a building safely in case there's a fire. Oh, and it's a bell inside the building, instead of a siren outside."
I was quite pleased with my zero-drama, totally relatable analogy. BSM thought that made perfect sense, and was satisfied. Husbinator raised his eyebrows and pointed out that speaking of cultural differences, that one was kind of a doozy.
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