When your child plays up his disabilities: drama at Disney on Ice

Max was plenty excited in the car ride yesterday to see Disney on Ice. He'd been wanting to see it and when my friend Peg reached out about going as a group, we were in. Then we got there and Max realized that we weren't going to be in a suite, and we had a stand-off in the lobby.

"Max, we have great seats," I said to him.

"Upstairs!" he said, where the suites are.

The last time he'd seen Disney on Ice, he'd gone courtesy of his old school. A benefactor had given the students suite access. And once you've had a taste of all-you-can-eat mac 'n cheese and cake, life at Disney on Ice is evidently all downhill after that.

I finally coaxed Max toward our seats.

"Upstairs!" he told the usher, hopefully, when she pointed them out to us. Nope.

After we carefully made it down the stairs and settled into our seats, the pouting continued.

"It's too loud for me here!" Max informed me.

Now, Max had major sensory issues when he was younger. While loud noise is still not pleasing to him, and I won't be escorting him to any rock concerts in the near future, the volume at your average show typically doesn't disturb him anymore. We've taken him to a bunch of performances in recent years, sans headphones, and he's been fine.

"Max, you're usually happy at shows!" I pointed out.

"No! Loud!" he said, and gestured upstairs.

He was playing up his sensory issues to get what he wanted, only I wasn't going to play along.

"Max, when you were little loud music bothered you, but you've changed," I said.

"Upstairs," said he. "Loud!"

He's a smart one, that Max. He doesn't usually do this sort of thing, other than when he tries to get Dave to feed him at dinner when we got out because he claims to be tired and he knows Marshmallow Daddy will likely give in.

Distraction helped. We scrolled through photos of our recent Jamaica vacation. Peg, her husband and son showed up. When Max kinda-sorta growled hello, I explained that he was disgruntled about not having a suite. Her husband joked about Max needing to sit among the plebeians. Soon the show started, and right away, Max was mesmerized.

He pretty much stayed that way for the entire show. One particular highlight: when the dad of a kid sitting near us took a little nap. Max thought that was hysterical.

When it was over, though, he wasn't going to admit how much he'd enjoyed it.

"Max, did you love it?" I asked.

"No!" he said, still not forgiving me for providing him with a suite experience.

"Max, thank Peggy for getting the tickets!" I said. He grumbled something that sounded like "thanks."

"Oh, yeah, blame me for not getting a suite!" Peg joked.

En route home, Max asked when we could go see Disney on Ice again.