My Son, The Hitter

I don't even know where to start with this post. I am somewhat of a hormonal basket case right now, so it may not make any sense... but ah, what the heck. I am just going to jump right on in and hope you can keep up. :)

We have been attending a certain church here in town for a little over a year. Just last week we joined this church, and that is actually a big deal for us. We don't just go around joining every church we attend. We have been searching for YEARS for a church that has a proper emphasis on Scripture, and we finally found one. Not only does this church have a proper emphasis on Scripture, but the people are for-real-deal-genuine. And if Scripture emphasis and genuine people weren't enough to make me giddy about this rare find, the fact that my son loves to be there and loves to go to Sunday School just makes me happy as a lark.

So... all that being said, there are a few things you should know.

1) Zachariah loves Sunday School.

2) Zachariah is one of the youngest in the Sunday School class and he loves it.

3) The teachers are fabulous. Z loves them. I trust them with every fiber of my being. Nothing but positivity coming from this Mama!

4) Zachariah has always been really well behaved for them. Everyone tells me what a sweet boy he is. How he shares, how wonderfully he gets along with the kids, how he participates... it makes me happy to hear such good reports about my baby!

I don't know what happened, but last week my well behaved son became a "hitter". He doesn't hit out of anger, he just hits for the heck of it I guess. And he has even done it right in front of me when I would come pick him up. He and another kid will be happily playing and all of a sudden he will just hit them. I think its mainly a playful hit, but its a hit nonetheless.

Since he is not hitting out of anger I can only assume he is hitting out of excitement. I have seen the hit and it's not forceful. It is almost like he just cant figure out a better way to communicate at that moment so he just gives them a little hit on the arm. And the fact that he does it in front of me makes me think that it is so innocent that he doesn't see anything wrong with it!

Tonight after church I was told that he hit so many times that he was put in time out. And guess what? After time out he hit again. What the what?!?! He HATES time out. So the fact that he would hit again after he has already been in time out makes me even more sure that he doesn't"get" that it is wrong for him to playfully hit.

I don't know what to do. He does not hit at home. He does not hit at his grandparents houses. He does not hit when we have play dates during the week. So why does he hit at church?

Yeah. I don't know either. But I really wish I could figure it out!

I left church tonight in tears. I actually haven't stopped crying since we got home, and that was quite a few hours ago. I blame a lot of it on pregnancy hormones, but the other part is pure frustration of not knowing what to do to about this whole thing. I know he could be doing worse things, and I know it is probably just a phase and it will eventually be fine... but not knowing WHY he is hitting is driving me absolutely bonkers.

Anyway. Thanks for listening to my Mommy woes. I hope to be back later this week with a less boring and more thought out post. I just needed to vent and get my thoughts together before I could move on in the blogging world. :)