Jack's little world is being rocked by something, unseen and unknown by me, his mother. It is causing him to have these dramatic meltdowns which occur in the blink of an eye. He is crying for hours at a time for mundane reasons, and he is inconsolable. Last week it was over cantaloupe, today he did not want to wear pants. In his defense, he has been going free on the bottom while at home. However, when we go outside, we must wear pants since it is the proper thing to do.
Allison was prepped and ready to go to her gymnastics class and Jack was playing with his golf balls. Real golf balls, just for clarification. He told me repeatedly, "No pants." To which I replied with nice structured boundaries that he would have to put his pants on when we went to the car. He played until the last second when a full out wrestling match commenced as I got a pull up on him. Too exhausted to wrestle anymore I brought him to the car and proceeded to place his legs in his shorts while he was seated in what I thought would be a more restrained position. While screaming at the top of his lungs for the entire neighborhood's listening pleasure, I managed to get his shorts around his hips and get him buckled in. I kept an eye on doors and window, waiting for someone to peer out or come running to help this little boy who was obviously being tortured. No one noticed it seems, which makes me nervous in case a real emergency occurs!
Jack cried for half the car ride until he fell asleep. Peaceful quiet filled the car and I expected for the ordeal to be behind me. He napped in his car seat while Allison went to class. He has done this before and slept the entire time, but not today...of course, not today. He woke up crying, "I don't want pants!" It seems that our struggle had interjected itself into his REM sleep and he again was inconsolable. Again he cried, this time people did look but not with concern. It was more of a judgmental, what have you done look. I took him into the gym thinking that a change of scenery would help. It got worse...and so did the stares, and the conversations that went up in volume in an attempt to drown out my screaming child. So back to the car we went, and this time both of us were crying. I held him to no avail and finally placed him back in his car seat and went back into the gym to get Allison. Waiting for the police to arrive, since my child was in a running car in the parking lot I nervously paced between the car and the door of the gym. Peering inside, Jack was calm and drinking from my water bottle.
Tonight I sent Allison to vacation bible school with a friend and had some good one on one time with Jack. He was back to his pleasant and friendly persona that I adore. He snuggled with me and chatted. While sitting on the potty, he looked me in the eye and said, "I cry cause I don't want to wear pants." In a rather grown up conversation I told him that it made me sad when he acts that way. He seemed to process this, however we will see what shall happen tomorrow when he must wear pants again.
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