It’s Universal Pre-K provided by the local school district, so they ride with the elementary school kids. What we pay in taxes on our house for the year is what we’d pay for daycare in two months otherwise. It’s incredible.
I traveled to a city with cheap public transit for the first time recently. I imagine it’s a similar feeling.
Every morning I wait for the bus with my preschooler and am silently judged by my fellow suburban parents for my appearance. Today was a fun one.
I am 6’5”, fully bearded, and have blonde-dyed-teal hair down to my butt. I’m wearing a tie dye shirt that almost touches my knees, cinched around my waist with a dark ribbon to make it look dress-ish. My shorts are black and grey zebra print and they go just above my knees. I’m wearing enough bracelets and necklaces to jingle as I walk.
Divorced Dad across the street looks happy and is being chatty with the other parent at the stop. He sees me approach, falls silent, sighs, and faces forward. The other parent looks at him all confused, greets me, and we talk the rest of the wait. When the kids are on the bus, we all say goodbye, except for Divorced Dad, who specifically turns the longer direction in order to not face me and walks away without saying anything. My partner has confirmed that he doesn’t act this way when I’m not the one at the stop.
Stay mad, Divorced Dad. I ain’t hurting nobody.
Yeah it’s a good way to filter people out I guess. He used to be very polite before I started dressing how I wanted. Whatever lol