The Backpack

Sunday night we had a meeting with our local Down syndrome group. It was a great meeting, they provided babysitters while we listened to some information on financial planning for a child with special needs. We left feeling pretty, um, distraught ... Seems doing nothing isn't working well for us, so we're going to be doing something very soon. I'll definitely be posting more about this as I learn more, because EVERY parent of a special child needs to know this stuff.

After the meeting, one of the families had donated some gifts for our kids to take home. The gifts were for the kids with Down syndrome, and also their siblings. Logan was thrilled, and he actually sat down in front of the gift table and removed his shoes and socks so he could wear the new spiderman socks he picked off of the table! The kid has little self control.

He also found a backpack he fell in love with. There were two actually, one was Spiderman, and the other featured Lightening McQueen from the movie Cars. It was a difficult decision, but ultimately the Cars backpack trumped Spidey b/c it came with a matching lunch box. All of the boys backpacks were a small size, but Logan wanted one so badly he didn't care. I was secretly excited b/c I knew that a new backpack was inevitable in the coming weeks. HIs old one was literally hanging on by a thread and it had become so dirty, no extra heavy duty wash could get it clean.

He moved his folder and papers from his old bag to the new backpack as soon as we got home, and he admired the bag and it's matching lunch box all day on Monday, awaiting school on Tuesday. He did ask me a few times if the bag was for preschoolers, or if it was too small, but after seeing it on his back, I thought it looked okay. I reassured him it would be perfect for Kindergarten and we would get him a bigger one for First grade.

Tuesday morning he woke immediately when his alarm sounded, which doesn't happen often. He got dressed and straightened up his hair without prompting (yelling). He ate lunch quickly and was excited to catch the bus and show his friends his new bag. While I was fixing Chelsea's hair he even began fixing his own lunch! I was so impressed I helped him finish so he could take a cold lunch in his new lunch box.




Logan caught the bus as usual, and I drove Chelsea to school. After leaving her in her classroom, I popped in to say goodbye to Logan. He was sitting quietly in his seat and as I got closer, I noticed his eyes were red. I asked him what was wrong, and he immediately burst out in tears. "The kids were making fun of my bag and said it was small."

Ouch. (This is where I had to hold back my mommy emotions. No, I couldn't reach across the table and ask the kid next to him why she would knock down his new bag that he was obviously so proud of. No, I couldn't lay my head down and cry right along with him either, a much as I wanted to.)

Thank goodness Kindergarten teacher saves the day! She saw the disturbance and intervened. As soon as the perpetrator was confronted she also burst into great big alligator tears. It was quite a scene for 9am in the Kindergarten room.

Mommy rule #284, do not try to solve your childs' bullying issues by offering to buy him something.

Yes, I caved. It was my internal instinct. "Logan, It's okay, do you want to go get a new backpack after school?" I know, I know, that's absolutely the last thing I should have done, and I realized that as soon as I had said it to him. It did however seem to dry up the tears rather quickly. My poor kid, he'll never be able to deal with social problems on his own. I really need to learn to butt out!

The damage was done, I had promised him a new backpack. Before I left school he told me he specifically wanted a black Spiderman backpack. I went home, and spent the morning searching for backpacks with the black Spiderman.

To be continued ...


(Chelsea doesn't like when I try to take pictures of her brother and not her!)