The Snow Day that Wasn't

School was cancelled today.  At this later hour in the morning, the snow has just started and I am wondering why they did not try to get the day in some how.  After all, we lost all those days to the hurricane.  I assume that they must be concerned about the coming ice.  If you can manage to stay at home, who does not like a snow day?  It is a forced change in routine.  A chance to slow down a little.  Maybe a chance to catch up on things, or just do nothing at all.  Since I am lucky that I can work at home, I have always been one to enjoy a snow day.
This morning, I found myself reminiscing about the times when my son was young when there was an expected snow day that did not happen.  The use of the word "reminisce" is actually quite amusing, since it means to "indulge in an enjoyable recollection of past events."  I guess when your first child is in college, you find yourself reminiscing about just about anything.   In reality, there was nothing enjoyable about what happened when a snow day that my son expected did not happen.  When a predicted storm was on the radar, it ended up on my son's radar as well.  Only when it ended up on his radar, it became an event which he thought was guaranteed to happen.  I would dread hearing people talk about the coming storm and it was information that was nearly impossible to avoid.   I knew that school staff also talked about what would happen if the school day was missed.  Only, we all would be flexible if the snow day did not happen.  In fact, most adults would even be happy not to have to deal with the mess of travel and clean up.  But, flexible was not a word that could used to describe my son.  His need for routine and structure guaranteed that the missed snow day would end up in a meltdown.  The end result was that we needed to have a plan to work with if the snow day did not happen. These plans included the snow day social story and intervention from his speech therapist.  I recall lots of attempts to reason with him that no one, not even the teachers, was particularly happy to be at school if they had hoped for a day off due to snow.
I don't know if this happened because the predicted snow day became part of his rule structure, or if he just really needed a day off from school and was counting on the break.  My son spent a lot of energy just to get through the school day.  Being the rule boy that he is, he was never a behavioral issue at school.  In fact, he was the model student.  However, we experienced the fall out from school stress at home.  It was no wonder why he would crave the snow day off.  Ultimately, we realized that scheduled infrequent "break days" from school made a big difference in addressing his anxiety.  Most times, he did not even use the "break day", but simply knowing that he had one made a big difference.  The snow day dilemma became less of an issue once the "break day" was implemented.   Like thunderstorms in November, the snow day issues faded as my son became more flexible and increased his understanding.  Now, it is just a memory, enjoyably recalled as the snow falls on this quiet and peaceful morning.