Preschool problem

Wow.  I'm going to start this post off with something personal.  I think this will be important for the kids to read as they experience answer to prayer.  Daddy & I did a Bible study last week on humility.  One of the questions in the study was to list three ways we wrestle with pride.  One of my answers was in my children.  In my mind, their behavior is a reflection of me.  When they behave, use manners, and I hear cute stories about them, I am overjoyed.  When they misbehave, I view it as a personal attack.  And I tend to make mountains out of mole hills in many situations.  The brain then goes on overdrive...."Maybe I did something wrong?  Where do I need to Google or what book do I need to read to tell me how to "fix" this behavior?  I mean, there is NO way my child will behave like that!"  So you can see why I need humility in this area.  Well, God decided today would be a good day to teach this!

The pick-up process at Preschool is a drive-up car line.  This is awesome.  Especially on the 2 degree day that we are having today!  The teachers walk each child out to the car as we drive up.  Jackson's teacher is not always the one to walk him out, but today she was.  As she came up to my car, she said "Jackson had a really rough day today."  Mind you, this is the FIRST time all year I have had a conversation with her regarding Jackson's behavior.  And, it's in the car line.  Shocked, I responded, "Really?  What happened?"  She then responded that he has been having anger issues that have progressively gotten worse.  WHAT?!  Been having? Progressively?  I had about 5 seconds to get some detail about him having an issue during gym time, kicking blocks, yelling, and screaming.  Totally blindsided, I thanked her for the feedback, said we would be addressing it, buckled him up, and got out of the 30 car line-up quickly.  My pride was shot.  I felt totally deflated.  We have had no problems at church or BSF, but he is having them at school?  Lily never did this!  What am I doing wrong??  I had an unproductive conversation with Jackson in the car about what was going on at school.  He was tired and honestly, how do you talk to a child about an issue that has been going on for who knows how long?  So, I called Daddy.  He happened to be running errands in the area, so he decided to come home to talk to Jackson.  This, by the way, was his idea.  He felt it was important to address the issue while it was still fresh in Jackson's mind.  When we arrived home, I immediately called the school to talk in more detail with the teacher.

Apparently, he has had some minor issues of frustration with the other children.  Typically over a toy or something of that nature.  Totally normal for his age.  But today, he flipped out at gym time!  Yelling at another child calling them "Stupid!" over and over.  I addressed this issue in my last post.  In fact, I have labeled him the "Stupid Police" because he is the first one to tell me when he hears the word on T.V. or from another source.  He literally had naughty spray before school this morning for calling Lily this name!

His teacher and I had a great supportive conversation and she admitted today was completely out of character for Jackson and maybe he was tired or coming down with a bug.  Although either of those could very well be true, I was not allowing myself to accept those as excuses.  Again, my pride would not have it!  When I got off the phone, Daddy decided it was time to up our game with soap in the mouth instead of the naughty spray. It was not a pretty sight.  (He didn't see me capture this shot...but I had to have proof!)

After Daddy had quite a discussion with Jackson about behavior, he went back to work.

After Jackson calmed down, we had lunch together.  As we were talking, I had a light bulb moment that THIS situation was teaching me humility.  I am not in constant control of my child's behavior.  They will do things that will shock me, embarrass me, and there is nothing I can do to prevent that.  My responsibility is to lead, guide, and direct them in love.  And I realized that the first thing I should have done was pray about this situation.  My response would have been much less frantic!  This was a good lesson for me today.  And I am so thankful that I am able to see God's hand in this.