"But Mommy, I want to play with it."
Elijah put the Frisbee down. That Frisbee is for Frisbee golf...OUTSIDE. The battle lines were now drawn, time to either match him toe to toe or allow my house to be engulfed in Frisbee chaos.
"MOMMY I WANT TO PLAY WITH IT!" My response was totally not what Elijah wanted to hear or expected. I think he honestly thought I would bow down and say yes my son, throw it around in the house and feel free to shatter the pictures on the walls.
"I said no." Before the word no is formed on my lips, my son is screaming from the top of his lungs as he chucks the Frisbee into the wall (it left a lovely dent...very nice).
My four year old is a ticking time bomb. Granted he never really was that sweet of a baby with his nerves of steal and strong willed nature. He's been known to scream for four hours at a time. I went to the movies with my girlfriends once...four hours later I came home and my husband had given Elijah five bottles which didn't do any bit of good in terms of consoling the child. He screamed until he heard my voice and immediately piped down. It was also the last time I went to the movies. Through infancy and toddler hood, I've learned to pick my battles with this child. With a SWC(strong willed child), everything is a battle, and I mean EVERYTHING. Something as simple as which color of a cup to major must win battles such as holding hands when crossing the street or wearing a seat belt.
Elijah may have outgrown the rolls upon rolls of baby fat, but he hasn't outgrown his temper or low frustration level. That leaves me wondering when I will have a sweeter dispositioned golden haired blue eyed angel...apparently never. This morning has been one battle after another. The final straw after the Frisbee incident was biting his daycare friend Cole. Cole decided to NOT share his transformer named Bionicle with Lige (Elijah). Lige felt that this was the worst decision ever and clamped his mouth onto Cole's shoulder. So after this offense, I led my little man to a time out in which he proceeded to scream at the top of his lungs.
I couldn't take it anymore and sent up a whiny prayer to God. Unexpectedly I got an answer. Father God impressed on this short fused mama, He too feels the same way when we pray to Him for answers to our desires and yet we don't want for the response. Instead we keep babbling and expecting God to answer the way we expect things to go. When we don't get the response we expect or the answer we want, we in turn act just like my son does...screaming in frustration.
Ephesians 4:32 came to me, "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." The point being that though I'm beyond fed up with my son's tantrums, I need to show him compassion just as Father God shows me compassion when I chose not to listen to His guidance and directions. So after placing my screaming child in time out; and placed my self in a time out. Gathering the threads of my last nerve I spoke with my son giving him the reasons why it's not a good idea to play with a one pound Frisbee disc in the house and further more what his screaming does to my nerves. Though he seemed to zone out, he felt better. After hugging me, he ran off to play with Cole.
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