Don’t Miss The Bus!
Tad had a dilemma today. It didn’t go so well.
He’s going to start staying after school on Thursdays to be in art club, led by the supremely talented Ms. A, who is one of Tad’s favorite teachers. Tad couldn’t fit an art class into his schedule this year, so art club seemed like a good compromise.
And all was going according to plan, until Tad realized that he would miss the bus if he stayed for art club.
This meant I got a semi-panicked phone call from Tad, who also had his case manager Ms. C on the other end with him. I reaffirmed that yes, he was going to art club; no, he was not riding the bus home; yes, I would be picking him up.
Ms. C called me back about 15 minutes later, telling me that Tad had an honest-to-goodness meltdown about missing the bus. I promised to talk it over with him when I picked him up.
Well, he did just fine in art club, but as soon as I saw him after, he launched into an entire angry litany about how Ms. C made him miss the bus and I’m at fault because I told her that Tad should miss the bus.
Apparently, “not riding the bus home” and “missing the bus” was a distinction without a difference to Tad, who did get properly scolded when he missed the bus home a couple of weeks ago. My warning about consequences stuck with him, I guess, because that’s why he flipped out.
We talked a bit about the fact that he actually had permission to stay at school for art club, and I can tell that we’ll have to push it again next week.
It’s really hard to negotiate life when your executive functioning skills fail you sometimes. Or, as Tad says, “Being a teenager sucks.”
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