After the doctor’s office yesterday, since the Monster’s school is closer to my office (and KKI is around the corner from our house), I took him to school myself.

Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be that huge of a deal, since… well, it’s school.  And yes, he’s accustomed to being taken on the bus rather than having a parent drop him off, but that, to me, wasn’t that big of a chance.

Except for the fact that the only time he, I and school all cross paths is when I’m picking him up on Thursdays.

The real problem didn’t come in until after we’d already gotten there.  Certainly, after being “traumatized” by his experience at the doctor’s office, he was complaining most of the way to school about how he wanted Sesame Street.  (Not that he didn’t have the iPad in the back seat, and wasn’t entertaining himself with his games.)  The ride was uneventful, if hazy due to the fog that refused to lift.

The problem came after we’d gone inside.  His class, due to problems with the heat in his classroom, has been relocated to the mobile trailer outside, so after I’d taken him to the office to let them know that he was arriving late with a doctor’s note, I had to walk him over to the trailers.  This, then, queued up his normal routine with me at school – going to the car so we could go to gymnastics.  “Go to the car,” he insisted, when we turned the corner at the lot, and started towards the mobile trailer.  “Go to the car!”

Thankfully, we did avoid the meltdown, but… that tells you well how expectations need to be managed with the Monster.  Had I thought about it, I would have reminded him – multiple times – that we were going to school, that he was going to be dropped off with Ms. A, and that he’d take the bus home after school.  I don’t know if that would have wholly avoided the stress of my having to wrangle him so that he understood that it wasn’t the “usual” pattern.

Maybe over time, he’ll figure it out.  Still, time perhaps for more social stories…