[WSUCougar]

Yesterday just before lunch I get a frantic call from my wife.

“Our son is freaking out at daycare…crying uncontrollably and kicking the teachers. Can you go get him?!?”

So I went to get him.

He’s in the administrative office, sitting in a chair – well, more curled up like a ball in the chair – red-faced, and sucking on his fingers. Perhaps three teachers are trying to talk to him as I walk in. The head teacher asks him something and he starts to cry again. Well, right away I can tell that he is just stressed out and needs a break, so I say, “Come here and have a hug, Drew,” and he comes and wraps me up. The teachers – who are all good folks – proceed to tell me that he just went off and wouldn’t chill out. Eventually I’m able to determine the following:

1. Drew took one of his cheap little metal airplanes in to daycare. He is normally territorial about his toys, but he got the airplanes for his birthday as part of a cool aircraft carrier set
2. Matthew, one of his usual friends, tried to grab the plane from Drew and ended up pulling the front wheels off. I can see this scene in my mind’s eye. Ordinarily, Drew would probably scream or otherwise get upset, but this apparently set him off big time.
3. The teacher(s) tried to mitigate the situation or to get him to relax or whatever, and he would have none of it. He has a very severe sense of JUSTICE and he was the wronged party!!! But then he started kicking at the teachers, which is a big no-no.

Well, he said he was sorry to the teacher and seemed genuinely contrite as we rode home. He took a long nap and seems okay now. We gave him long talks about the kicking part, but I wish there was some way to instill some better reactions if/when kids try to take “his stuff.” In a way, I wish he’d just get a little physical with the other aggressive kid rather than going ballistic.