Sometimes you just need a time out

The last few weeks we have noticed that our usually very sweet little boy has turned a little bit on the not so sweet side. I noticed it first with how he treats our dog and cat. If he's particularly frustrated with something he will oftentimes march straight over to Brady and either hit him or grab a handful of fur and pull. Poor puppy. Thank goodness he is so sweet natured. If Zoe our cat has the misfortune of being spotted by Jake in one of his moods she will get a little kick in her side. We love our animals and have been trying to teach him that it's never okay to hurt them (even when we catch them eating our baked goods) but the learning curve here seems to be pretty steep.

So anyhow, I've been wondering when this behavior would spill over into his mother's day out program with the other kids. Mike and I had been doing time out with him by putting him in his crib for a minute if he refused to listen to us. Recently, we decided going up and down the stairs to the crib was really stupid so one morning after he pulled enough fur out of Brady to make a small coat, I told him in no uncertain terms to go to the corner for time out. I figured I was going to have to take him there and stand right in front of him to get him to stay in place. Much to my surprise he marched right over to the corner, stuck his nose in it, and stayed there until I told him to get out! Then I told him to tell Brady sorry which he did immediately while patting him on the head. At first I just sat there thinking "my kid is a genius." And then I thought, wait a minute. We've never put him in time out in a corner before. How did he know what to do? The thought dawned on me that perhaps his teachers at school had a little something to do with this new found behavior.

So the next school day I had a little talk with his teachers to see if he was a trouble maker in class who regularly visited the time out corner. Mysteriously, they assured me that he is an angel and that they don't even do time outs! So, I'm back to the "my kid is a genius" thing. And an angel to boot!

You know that saying "pride cometh before the fall"? Or something like that. Well, last Wednesday when I picked him up from class, this little mama fell pretty hard. His teacher told me that he had been pretty aggressive all day long and that he had to go to time out for hitting some kid upside the head. Although I've been expecting this to happen just from what we're witnessing at home, I have to say I was so disappointed. And a little embarrassed. She did tell me it was pretty freaky how when they decided to tell him to go to time out he marched himself straight over to the corner and put his nose in it until they told him to come out. She told me what a good job we must be doing with time outs at home! Each day they give us a little report card with details of our child's day. Sure enough, at the bottom of Jake's sheet it said "VERY aggressive today" with a little asterisk by the words. Oh my. We have some work to do. I will say that another mama picking up her boy right after I got Jake got the same bad news that I had gotten. As I was walking away, I heard her saying "he was very aggressive today?!" I know this is bad, but I felt just a little bit better that Jake wasn't the only one who had a hard day. I know how he feels though. I have to admit that sometimes at work when we have five or six babies crying at the same time I would like to put myself in the corner and bury my nose there for a few minutes. Just for a little break.