Scotti's Schedules

Lately I have been feeling really pushed around by my kids' schedules. Not their actual ones, which, admittedly, are packed jam full. No, I am feeling beat by my kids' pretend schedules. Especially Scotti's. Each morning he wakes up in the morning and plans out his day: soccer practice in the morning, save the world from an erupting volcano mid-morning, race with his cars at lunch, soccer game in the afternoon, bike riding after the game, and exploring after dinner. He jam packs every day and tells me his schedule during breakfast. I love this about him. He is never bored, and is always thrilled to just stay at home for the day, playing. However, what I don't love about this is that usually this is not the same agenda I have for him. He doesn't just get mad that he can't do these activities, but he feels that they are real and that I am actually making him miss it. For example, when I tell him that today he'll have to play his soccer game after school instead of in the morning, he says that the game is in the morning and he can't miss it, because he's the best on the team! I'm not going to make him let down the whole team, am I? Then, after school, he reports to me that his team lost and that if he had been there, they would have won. Now the whole championship is lost.

Today I gave my kids some options of fun things to do: swimming, bowling, children's museum, go to a movie, have a friend over, and a few other fun things. Scotti wanted to do none of them, because he would miss his basketball game. Bedtime always seems to be a scheduling conflict. There seriously is always a race or something that starts at 7:30 pm.

This wouldn't be that big of a deal, except that Scotti acts like I am really making him miss these events. He has a very strong imagination and sometimes, I think he doesn't know that the event is actually imaginary. That means that he really thinks I am making him miss these things and he is literally always upset with me. How can these imaginary events be causing me so much grief?