Josiah recently decided he doesn’t need a seat belt anymore. Every time I strap him in, he wiggles his body right out. Yesterday, after I picked up Josiah from school, I needed to run a quick errand.  Since he loves riding in the van, I figured it was a good time to go.

We made it to our destination with minimal drama, though I did ‘catch’ Josiah twisting his body around so his back was hanging off the seat and his head tilted up. He was still strapped in, but contorted in such a way he was staring towards the ceiling, dangling a chewy tube from a cord. I snapped a couple of pictures of him, while stopped at a red light.

Shortly after that, Josiah stood up and started jumping.

He had squeezed out from the seat belt and was walking around the van. My verbal reminders to sit down were ineffective.  He kept roaming around, laughing and bouncing. I looked for a place to quickly pull over.  The closest spot was a nearby parking lot.  As I pulled in, I literally had to drive directly in front of a parked police car.

I prayed we wouldn’t be noticed.  An unstrapped child brings a traffic violation and a hefty fine. I was contemplating my explanation and wondering if there would be any compassion. Is there mercy for unstrapped children if they have disabilities and aren’t cooperating with parental commands?

Fortunately, we didn’t have to find out.  The police car started up, drove right past us and never even noticed.  Thank goodness for our heavily tinted windows. I slid the van door open and noticed the seat belt was still buckled.  I unbuckled it, helped Josiah back into his seat and strapped him in, tightly. I closed his door, opened mine, strapped myself in and noticed Josiah wiggling out of his seat belt again.

I hadn’t even started driving yet. I took a video at this point.  I wanted to learn exactly how Josiah was managing to free himself so quickly. 2 more times I strapped that little boy back in place and 2 more times he wiggled right out. We weren’t going to get very far at this rate.  I had to come up with something.

That’s when I noticed.

Josiah was walking towards the back of the van.  He wanted to sit on the large bench seat behind his regular chair.  I thought that was a great idea. The middle section of the bench seat has only a lap belt which I doubted Josiah could wiggle out of. I strapped him in and we made it home.

Josiah couldn’t tell me he wanted to sit in the back.  He could only continually escape his seat and bounce to the back, hoping I’d understand. Its exactly why, many times lately,  he grabs the gallon milk jug from the refrigerator and walks with it, through the house to find me. It just means he wants a drink of milk. I guess when you are non verbal and want something, your only recourse is to take action.

I like that plan. I think I will adopt it. No need to ask for what you want.  Just go for it. I hope my family thinks so too. I just purchased a new home.

It’s in Bora Bora.