The case of the missing coat

Every morning during the surge to get everyone out the door for school, we always have to deal with  helping someone find something they need to move forward; like shoes, coat, backpacks, or musical instruments. It is always something, and it always flips me out. Always. I have ADHD and one of the coping mechanisms is that everything has a place. When things are not where they are supposed to be, I have the capacity to lose it, but I know that if I do, it will be a big mess, so I suck it up and do what is required.

On this particular day, we couldn't find #1's coat. His coat is a huge, red, Land's end, down coat; easy to find in a crowd and hard to misplace. We looked everywhere and each second that passed, he got more and more agitated. "you mean, I will never see it again? I won't have a coat anymore? I will always be cold", he just went on and on. Just shoot me. Where is this coat? If he had hung it up on the hook, we wouldn't be dealing with this right now.....just shoot me.

His bus came and he ran out of the house on that cold day in just his shirt since he refused to wear any type of coat after such a distressing discovery.

Great, just great. He is going to be agitated at school and lament on the missing coat the entire day. And he won't be allowed to go outside for recess and that will make everything that much worse.

I had to find that coat. 

 I first emailed his teachers and gave them a head's up and asked them if he has left the coat at school. The last few days were warmer than usual and he hadn't been needing it the last few days. I then wracked my brain to retrace all our steps since the weekend.

I took him with me to the gym on Sunday, so I gave them a call. They looked around and found the coat. He had left the gym without it and didn't notice because the weather was so warm. 

Yippee! I found the coat!

But now, it had to become a lesson in accountability. He needed to accept the fact that he left his coat behind, go get it, and remember that in the future he needs to keep track of his things.

When he got home from school that afternoon, I told him we located the coat. "Oh, Mom, you're the greatest", he said as he ran towards the trampoline. I blocked his way and told him it was at the gym and that I would take him back to the gym to retrieve it. "No mom, you get it", he said, as he ran around me to get to the trampoline.  Excuse me?  I explained to him that he needed to be accountable for his mistake and get his jacket. But no matter how I phrased it, he wasn't buying it. "I'm going to be cold forever", was all he could say. 

Husband took him to get the coat and he reluctantly went in to the child room to get it. While he looking through the pile of coats, he kept saying,"I'll never have a coat. I will be cold forever." And then  he found his coat. He let out a happy sigh and put it on.

He returned home happy and warm.

Let's hope he learned to keep track of it for now on.
I can't take the drama and coats ain't cheap.