Yellowknife (Nov 05/04) - Do you ever wonder what a day in the life of a school bus driver is like? Well, let me tell you.

Our day begins at 7 a.m. when our pre-trip is done to make sure the bus is safe for your child to ride in.

Bus driver Jo-Anne Sigurdson guards the door of the school bus she drives five days a week. Sigurdson makes three trips a day, shuffling 68 children to schools throughout the Yellowknife region. - Chris Hunsley/NNSL photo

We head to our first stop, never knowing and sometimes dreading what lies ahead of us. Today, like most days, starts out great. The first 10 kids on the bus are in good moods. At least you think they are, but something starts to happen as the bus fills up.

The mood starts to change, the noise level turns deafening. You wonder: "Have aliens landed on my bus? Or maybe..."

Whack! I just got hit in the head with a sandwich! I look back in my mirror -- while still keeping an eye on the road -- and see food flying everywhere. I get on the PA and ask your children to stop throwing food. One child looks at me and mocks me. I just smile.

Things seem to calm down a little and down the road I go.

I hear someone yell out "he took my hat," then, "no I didn't!" And the battle begins.

Now I have an argument going on. One kid is climbing over seats, one is running up and down the aisle, a little one is crying because she misses her mommy and older kids are yelling out the windows.

I drive by the high school and think I am going through a war zone as teens standing on the sidewalk start pelting the bus with snowballs. I am contending with all this while still driving safely and trying to control 60 children on the bus.

I get on the PA once again and calm the kids down. A little girl comes up to me and tells me she is going to be sick. As I reach for the garbage can, projectile vomit comes out of her mouth all over me.

Another child is insisting on telling me about the fight his parents had the night before, while another child wants to top his story by telling me how his 16-year-old sister is sleeping around.

The quiet little girl in the front seat has just lost her grandmother and tells me how much she misses her. I listen and tell her words of encouragement, while still trying to maintain some type of order with the other 60 children and driving safely.

I stop the bus to pick up more kids. My flashing red and amber lights and the stop sign light up my bus like a Christmas tree, when all of a sudden a truck comes barrelling through it all, nearly hitting a child.

My heart stops. I feel sick when I think what could have happened. I gather myself together, load more kids on the bus and off I go.

At the next stop is a parent waiting to give me a piece of their mind because of an incident on the bus yesterday. The parent talks to me like I am a mindless child. All the while I am thinking "I am a professional driver in charge of the safety of all of the children on my bus -- why is this parent talking to me this way?"

I finally manage to end the conversation because now I am running late.

I arrive at my first drop-off and the line is 40 cars long! Do you think one car would let me in? No! Do they not realize I am on a tight schedule and still have three more schools to go to?

Finally, there is a small break in traffic and I nose my way in, but not before getting the one-finger salute from a 19-year-old driver who is racing to beat me.

The kids unload and I tell them all to have a wonderful day.

As I finish my last drop-off, I sigh with relief. Everyone made it safely and I only got three grey hairs on this trip.

I head back to the bus barn and clean up the mounds of unwanted lunches smashed all over the bus. Then at 3 p.m., it all starts again.

Why do I do this job, you ask? Because I am good at it and love kids. I love your kids!

All I'm asking for is a little respect and an occasional thank you for keeping your kids safe.

- Joanne Sigurdson is a school bus driver and funeral director in Yellowknife