‘She slapped the side of the bus and screamed that I’d regret this.’: Mother asks bus driver to break bus rules and pick her and her son up at an unofficial bus stop, then calls the driver ‘useless’ when they refuse

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  • "I didn't expect someone to stand there screaming at me like I was the villain because I wouldn't risk my job..."
  • "Apparently, I’m ruining the next generation because I wouldn’t break bus rules."

    I'm 39F, I drive a city bus for a living. On the side, I also do graphics design freelance work, but the bus job is my steady paycheck.
  • Yesterday something happened that's still eating at me. There's a mom and her teenage son ( maybe 13 or 14).
  • They're waiting at a spot that's not an official bus stop. We're not allowed to pick up or drop people off anywhere except designated stops.
  • It's drilled into us for safety, traffic, liability, insurance all of that. If I break that rule and something happens, I lose my job and my license.
  • So she waves me down like it's an emergency, I pull up just enough to tell her I can't open the doors there, but the next stop is literally a few minutes down.
  • a young mother with her child waits at the bus stop in a city setting
  • She looked as me ped, almost immediately and snaps at me saying her son has an exam and if he misses it, it's on me.
  • I told her again and calmly that I'm not allowed to pick people up here, please walk him down to the next stop, which is literally just a couple steps away.
  • She explodes, starts yelling that bus drivers hide behind rules because they're lazy, that I don't care about kids, that do I even have a kid?
  • Then comes the line that's been running through my head since She said; you just drive around in circles all day.
  • People like me raise the next generation. Her kid looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him.
  • She slapped the side of the bus and screamed that I'd regret this. I closed the doors and drove off, but my hands were shaking the whole time.
  • I deal with entitled people in design work all the time (clients wanting endless free revisions, exposure instead of payment etc.).
  • But driving the bus was supposed to be my straightforward job and rules are rules, and that is it.
  • I didn't expect someone to stand there screaming at me like I was the villain because | wouldn't risk my job and everyone's safety for her convenience.
  • I know logically I did the right thing, but it's hard not to carry her words around.
  • Just driving in circles or do I even have a kid? Like my work means nothing.
  • Like I'm nothing. I went hom very sobber, not because I felt guilty, but because strangers can dump their anger on you and walk away while you're left replaying it in your head.
  • That woman will forget me by next week, but I'll be stuck with the memory of her rage and her kid's embarrassed face for a long time.
  • Man-o-Bronze You provide a valuable service. And by "driving around in circles" you get people to their destinations and back again. Forget about the idiots: They're not worth the space in your head.
  • Melodic-Dark6545 If her kid had an exam why didn't she drive him to school? It happens that you are also "raise the next generation" with your job, making them arrive to school safe and not letting very entitled an unhinged person risk safety over her drama
  • Bivagial So in the same conversation she said she desperately needed your service, and that your service is useless....
  • And blaming you for her poor time management is just icing on the cake. No ma'am, the kid missing his exam isn't on the bus driver, it's on the person that didn't take the earlier bus.
  • Your job is an essential one. How people forget that after only a handful of years is amazing in an awful way. Five years ago, you were a hero. Now she says you're useless.
  • Some people are just incapable of admitting mistakes and lash out to blame the first person they can.

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