Thursday, July 02, 2009

Creatures of Habit


I really wanted to go to this business event earlier this week, but it was in the early evening and Amy happened to have a doctor's appointment. Thankfully, our day care allows us 10 hours a day, and the 10 hours can be pretty flexible. So I figured if I dropped them off later than usual, I could pick them up later than issue and still catch some of this business event.

But what to do with the kids in the morning, particularly since they would be missing breakfast at day care? McDonald's may not be the solution to all of life's problems, but in this case, it was the solution to our problem, especially since it is only two blocks from day care. Even better, Amy said she wanted to join us, and then would walk to the library to study from there. So this was going to turn out alright; a potentially tricky scheduling situation turned into a fun family outing.

Except that I forgot that Jada is such a creature of habit. She was so excited about going to McDonald's at first, but when I returned to our table with an Egg McMuffin for them and coffee for Amy, she immediately howled in protest. Because of course, at McDonald's, we get chocolate milk and Chicken McNuggets. And no amount of explaining that it was breakfast and not dinner could settle her down.

Amy finally got her to settle down by buying her and Aaron some chocolate milk. But for the rest of our meal, everyone was a little frazzled. And, since I picked them up from day care much later than usual, we got home pretty late and our evening routine was thrown off, leading to a little sobbing by Jada and a lot of tantruming by Aaron.

I have no regrets about blowing up our schedule for a day: I had a good time at the business event, the kids will have to learn to be flexible over time, and the night eventually did end with four tired people retired to their beds for the night. But I will remember the crankiness and tears the next time we have to do something out of the ordinary schedule-wise, and prepare accordingly.

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