Just Ask

I’m a punctual person by nature and I know G does best when he is present for the beginning of any activity, he does not do as well if he has to jump in to something already in progress.  As a result, we are hardly ever late.  For anything.  Ever.

But today, we were late getting to school.  Everything was clicking along as usual this morning and the schedule was being followed properly.  Until it came time for G to put on his shoes and socks.  I usually have him put his socks on in his bedroom while he’s getting dressed.  But today I noticed he left his socks on the floor so I picked them up and brought them to the living room and reminded him to put them on.  I went about cleaning up the breakfast dishes and then looked in at him, still no socks.  And the socks were nowhere in sight.  I retrieved the socks from under the couch, used a firmer voice and told him to put them on ‘now.’   Went to collect his lunch and backpack and came back – still no socks. 

By now I was pretty frustrated.  I told him to pick up the socks, go downstairs to the shoe rack, put on the socks and put on his shoes.  G picked up the socks and went downstairs.  I figured everything was back on track and spent a minute collecting my stuff to head downstairs.  When I get there, G has his coat on and is ready to go – barefoot.  “G!  WHY DON’T YOU HAVE YOUR SOCKS AND SHOES ON YET!”

And he told me.  He had a hangnail on his big toe that was dragging on the sock and hurt.  So we took off his coat and went back upstairs to fetch a band-aid.  After that, shoes and socks went on with no problem and we were out the door.  However, it put us behind schedule and we arrived 5 minutes after the bell and had to get a tardy slip.  Fortunately, G found the process of getting the tardy slip interesting and joined his class with no problems.  And I re-learned an important lesson.  G doesn’t volunteer information without prompting.  If I want to know why G is or is not doing something, I need to ask him.