I was talking to a friend yesterday about something that Little J's been doing lately when he comes home from school: tantruming. Generally, about 15 minutes after he gets home something frustrates him to the point that he begins to weep and wail and gnash his teeth and generally sound pitiful. This goes on for about 20 minutes. It's quit unpleasant to listen to and any attempts to calm him down or get him to stop or to fix whatever it was that made him so upset don't work. After about 20 minutes, once he's gotten it out of his system, I can get him to stop. Then he's done for the day. Back to his normal sometimes-grumpy-but-most-of-the-time-not-self.

My friend said he was having a fit of spirit. I love that description! It says it all.

What I think is going on is that now that Little J's ADHD is somewhat under control he's absorbing so much more at school that by the time he gets home he's overloaded. I know he's behaving much, much better at school, too, so again, once he gets home he needs a release.

I think the best thing I can do right now I let him have that release. He obviously needs it. Don't we all?

I know I had a bit of a fit of spirit yesterday! Now, Little J's frustration so far has been addressed at his bicycle (which he's trying to learn to ride without training wheels) or his baseball and bat, or whatever toy he's playing with at the time. My fit of spirit was addressed to my husband...much to his displeasure.

I wasn't quite as loud as Little J is when he's having his fits...but I certainly was as dramatic. I'll spare you the rundown of the argument in this blog entry, although I'll write about my quandary in my next. Suffice it to say that I understand and empathize what's going on with Little J and although I don't like that he's doing it I'm glad we have a safe place at home for him to let loose.