So the whole family went to Disney On Ice a few weeks ago.
I wrote about it back then and I thought I’d tell you about our experience.
This was Jonah’s (nonverbal Ausome-6) first time. Jonny (Kabuki Kiddo-11) has been to Disney on ice every year since he was 5. He absolutely ADORES it.
We just conquered the heck out of Disneyland (I’ll write about that later) a couple weeks earlier so I figured this would be a breeze.
Except… at Disneyland, we had “outs.” We weren’t “boxed” into our seats six people from the stairway if we had to leave.
At Disneyland, we made contingencies for if things went downhill for Jonah. There was a kids play area with slides and zip lines and places to just run around to his little heart’s content.
Or, there was always the pool at the hotel if he was feeling overwhelmed. We made use of this. EVERY DAY.
One day he swam for (I KID YOU NOT) SIX HOURS.
At Disneyland we brought Grammy and Papa to help us out because there was NO WAY we could do it by ourselves.
We prepped ourselves for nearly a year for that Disneyland trip.
We barely even got tickets for this Disney on Ice event… we purchased them a week ago…and bringing Jonah was more of an afterthought.
“Oh yeah. He should be fine…”
🤔
😳
Shouldn’t he?
This was just asking for everything to go wrong.
Confined to a seat for 2 hours in a packed auditorium. Unfamiliar people. An unfamiliar routine. What could happen?
The kid has never even been to a MOVIE for crying out loud, because we didn’t think he would make it through the whole thing and it wouldn’t be worth the TWELVE DOLLAR TICKETS.
Like… “mOvIe tIcKetz R eXPENSive!”
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH “DISNEY ON ICE” TICKETS FREAKING COST??”
(Jonny will be sure to tell you just like he did all my extended family, his friends, our friends, our pastor, the grocery checker, pretty much EVERYONE he has come in contact with in the last week.)
This was most likely going to be a COLOSSAL waste of money.
Because here’s the scenario, (and here’s what I dreaded would happen).
Jonah lasts 15-20 min. Jonah gets antsy. He wants to run around. Jonny will want to watch the show. Jonah will want to leave, but will want brother to come too.
Jonah has meltdown because Jonny won’t leave.
Jonny also has meltdown when we decide to call it quits and DO LEAVE.
We end up carrying both our screaming, flailing, kicking kids across the half-dozen rear ends to ankles seats, occupied by the perfect family and their little angels for kids next to us in the middle of Elsa belting out “Let It Go” (“excuse me… sorry… sorry… coming through. ooh. did he kick you in the face, sweetie? Sorry about that… [grab a leg would ya, Hon?]”)
…All the way to the car… which was parked like… 500 miles away.
And then we will have wasted not one, but ALL FOUR Disney on ice tickets…the kids would continue the meltdown all the way home and into the wee hours of the morning and with Daylight Savings Time, their sleep schedule is already off… THIS Disney “show” would probably ruin ALL OF TOMORROW.
Seriously.
I sat in my car in the driveway before we left, the kids in the back, and this scenario was playing out in my head.
“What are we doing, Hon? Why do we hate ourselves?” I asked my wife before backing out of the driveway.
She kinda just shrugged and smiled at me.
Jonny was so excited. “Jonah, do you want to go to Disney on Ice?”
“JONNY, DON’T ASK HIM THAT OR HE’LL THINK WE’RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!! HE’S NEVER BEEN TO DISNEY ON ICE AND DOESN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS, YET.”
Seriously. You get Jojo’s expectations up, and it’s meltdown city if those expectations are not met.
We pulled into the parking lot around a half-hour before start time.
Things started off okay. We made it to our seats fine. Jonah waited patiently for “whatever the heck this was” to start.
He stayed in his seat most the time… he sat on my lap the rest of it.
And to my surprise, guess what?
Jonah actually ENJOYED THE SHOW.
He laughed at Woody and Buzz. He “oo-ed” and “awwed” at some of the acrobat performances and he made it meltdown free through the ENTIRE SHOW.
He DID have some trouble during intermission.
Jonah was like [my interpretation of his non-verbal cues], “Are we all done? Why are we leaving? Oh we’re done? Okay… let’s go. Let’s GO!! wait. Why are we going back? We have to go back to those ‘jam-packed like a sardine can’ seats and walk in front of all these people… like stepping on their toes? They are way too close to me!! I do not want to walk down that row of people again. No! NOOO MAMA!! “
(He then slapped my wife across the face. A few times. In front of everyone. I just picked him up and held him).
When Jonah feels anxious, he lashes out. He’s not trying to be malicious, he is trying to get control of his situation, in an environment that is out of control and fills him with anxiety.
I didn’t punish him, or discipline him, except to have him apologize to Mama, and judgmental onlookers sitting around us take a hike, because you know what?
My son had a good day.
I held Jonah on my lap for the rest of the show. And he did just fine.
Not a single meltdown.
We got home, ate some leftovers and Jojo went to bed in his favorite “sheriff Woody” jammies.
He’s finally asleep now…
…probably dreaming of enormous ice skating Disney Characters, jumping and twirling all around the rink…
…hopefully not in a “nightmarish” kinda way… but in a “maybe we can start a family tradition” kinda way.
An expensive family tradition.
And thanks to Jonny, you will most-likely know just HOW expensive.