Today I got duped

This morning I was getting my preschoolers out of the bath and ready for their bus, and the 3 year old, Doodles, declared that he didn't want to go to school. "I not go on the bus! Izzy go on the bus. I stay home!"

It is fairly common for him to decide that he is not going to take the bus to school. I usually respond with a calm, "Oh, you don't want to go to school? OK." and then I turn all my attention toward Izzy Man and get him ready with enthusiasm and talk about all the fun he will have at school, and of course by the time we are waiting for the bus at the door, Doodles will decide that he does indeed want to go to school, and so we scramble to get him ready, and off he goes.

So, I followed my usual routine today, but Doodles didn't.
"I don't like the bus!"
"I'm going to take a nap!"

And of course I start having those feelings that probably all concerned parents have. "Is there some reason that he doesn't want to ride on the bus?" "Is something bad happening on the bus?" and of course every horror story you ever heard about some victimized child goes flying through my brain. My preschoolers are not too strong verbally yet, so I tend to want to just respect it if they say they don't want to go on the bus or go to school.

And today, Doodles stuck to his guns. He was *not* going to school!

And so the bus came, Izzy Man got on, I told the driver that Doodles would not be coming, and off they went.

And there stood Doodles at the doorway of the house

almost in tears

Saying

"I want to go on the bus!"

And so then I got to start thinking to myself, "What's worse? I could make him stay home and miss school and say Tough Tooties, Brother, in order to fend off any notion he might get that he can just decide to not take the bus and then force me to drive him to school. OR, I can have him here all day when I have all this stuff to do....."

So, I took him to school. But if there's a next time, he'll just have to miss it and listen to me mention throughout the afternoon how much fun all the kids are probably having at school. ;)

And of course, I shot myself in the foot anyhow. Squiggy was all snuggled down for a nice nap when it was school time. I actually had to wake him up to drive Doodles to school. SO now I have a clingy, tired toddler hanging off of me, so I probably won't get squat done today anyhow. Great.