Temper Tantrums

Matthew loves church! He constantly talks about singing and dancing at church, however, this morning he decided he didn't like his sweater.


Matthew has finally started to test his boundaries. We knew this day would be coming. In our foster care classes we learned we were in the honeymoon phase. The honeymoon phase is the time before the child starts to really feel comfortable and begin testing boundaries. I think we're out of the honeymoon phase! There have been two instances this weekend where Matthew hasn't agreed with what we were doing. This morning, right before we left for church, we put a sweater on Matthew. He decided he didn't want to wear the sweater. We were on our way out, it looked very nice, and it fit perfectly, so we told him he was wearing the sweater. He collapsed to the floor and started to kick and scream. Jason picked him up and took him to the timeout chair. He told him that we were ready to go to church and that we would leave as soon as he calmed down and stopped crying. He stayed put in the chair and kicked and screamed while we loaded the other two in the car. Jason kept saying whenever you're ready to stop crying you can get up and we'll go to church. Once he knew that was our expectation, he stopped crying, came in the kitchen, and said he was sorry. We told him that when he gets upset we want to talk about it, and that kicking and screaming will not get him what he wants. I am happy we are out of the honeymoon phase because that means Matthew is one step closer to feeling like he is part of our family. We are trying to be consistent. This coming week in our foster care classes we are talking about discipline. I hope we learn a thing or two to implement in our home with all three kids. We want our behavior expectations and our reactions to be the same for all.