Overcoming Busy

My Truant Pre-schooler

November 4, 2009 by Marci

We have had a wet, cold fall.  The weather around these parts has been pretty miserable.  No one feels that more than my 4 year old.  All summer long, he has been outside riding his bike and playing trucks with his friend next door from sunrise til past sunset just about everyday.  This rainy, yucky weather has made for a sad, yucky 4 year old.

This week, the weather is finally looking decent.  Still cool.  But dry.  My little guy and his buddy have been playing trucks almost ferociously.  Like they know there won’t be very many more days left before winter hits.  Yesterday, was beautiful.  The sun was shining in a cloudless sky.  And we were running to the chiropractor, the library and out to lunch.  By the time we were finished, it was time for my little guy to go to pre-school.  Not the news he wanted to hear.

We stopped by our house on the way to his school to pick up his backpack and his little friend was waiting for him to play.  My son’s eyes lit up like Christmas.  He almost jumped out of the car.  When I finally came to a stop, he lept from the vehicle and grabbed his friend and headed for the trucks to take to the empty lot next door.  I yelled at him something about pre-school and he just said “I can’t.  My stomach hurts!”  And off they went.

I’m not sure where the whole stomach thing came in.  I guess he heard it somewhere and it got someone out of going to school.  It sounded ridiculous at the time, but later that day when my husband asked how school was, I told him he didn’t go because he had a stomach ache!!

Those boys played all afternoon until dark.  They played with trucks in the dirt and in the sandbox.  They raced them down the street.  They had a ball!  My husband was a little upset with me for not making him go to school.  But, he didn’t see how much fun they were having.  In my mind, its just pre-school.  He is still a little boy.  Little boys have to run and play.  There is a time for pre-school, but that time was not yesterday.  Taking him to school on a beautiful fall day, that I know will be one of the last, would have been punishment.

So, I’ll take my truant pre-schooler to school today (maybe…its gorgeous outside already!!) and explain he had a stomach ache that only 5 hours of fresh air, mud and a good friend could cure.