School service: More fun in the Philippines!

My son, K, has been in school since 2008, so that's about 6 years already.  He started with play school then.  As I was still working full time, we had no choice but to get him a school bus.  His school was about 2 kilometers away from the house, so the fee was only about P1.5k including Yaya. 

In 2011, we moved him to a big school which was right outside our village so either he walked, biked or if I was working from home, I drove him to and from school.

Source

The following year, SY 2012-2013, he moved to another school, where he is still currently enrolled.  It's a bit far, considering how near his previous schools were, about 7 kilometers from home.  My husband and I shared one car then, so it would be hard to bring K to school.  I had to get a school service, for a round trip fee of P3k.  The thing is, he was picked up before 6:30am and dropped off at 4pm, when dismissal was 2:20.  Poor kid!  But he had to endure it.

That school bus operator was a pain in the behind too.  He would ask for fee advances.  Sometimes he would forget to pick up my son.  The yaya called me one time to say that the school bus hasn't picked up K yet and it was already 7:20 am.  I was on my way to Makati already, and I was in the middle of SLEX.  Good thing our kind neighbor, who's a retired school bus driver and operator, offered to bring K to school. 

The following school year, we finally decided to get another car for the hubs.  We still decided to get a school bus for K, since I didn't have a realiable yaya that entire year.  We had to get another service since we were unhappy with the previous one.  One way school service was 75% of the round trip fee, so we paid about P2.25k monthly.  That school service was very good, they dropped K off on time, they value safety and  were organized.  There were a couple of instances that I had to go to the office and I couldn't get home before 3pm (the time K is dropped off at home).  Usually I'd call them to say drop K last, when I'd be home.  But then a couple of times, K was dropped off at home even when I wasn't home yet.  K ended up staying with the neighbors, or he'd be sitting in front of our house.  That wasn't safe.  So my option was if I had to go to the office, I'd ask them to leave K at school where he is safer and I'd pick him up there myself.

With all the issues we've been facing with the school service and no yaya (then, now we have yaya na!), this year, we finally decided not to get a school service.  I'd bring K to school and then pick him up.  If I have a call or would be traveling to Makati and I'd be late to pick him up, then it's all good since he's at school and he can have more time to play basketball.  It's been almost a month of this and it's working out well for us.  So far so good.  #crossingmyfingers #prayinghard