Most of the time Evan is a little angel and is as sweet as can be, but there are some times that the devil takes hold of him and he turns into a monster. Thankfully these Dr. Hyde moments have been at the house and I can deal it with him without being embarrassed or judged. But, with any luck streak it ran out and lately this not so nice side of Evan has been coming out in public.
I've read about it in every toddler development book and shouldn't have been surprised when it happened, but I was. My son is a hitter. I have no idea why he decided he wants to hit people, pets, and things but he has and I'm dumbfounded by it. It started happening a few weeks back when he'd get upset at me or John for not letting him do what he wanted, he'd walk up and hit us. I'd promptly put him in time out and tell him no hitting, to which he'd cry even more but then walk over and give us a hug. In my mind, this was making progress and I had the problem under control.
Fast forward to Evan's Kindermusik class this past Saturday when Dr. Hyde decided to pay a little visit. We had just walked into class, when Evan decided to walk up to a baby girl that was 6 months old and hit her in her head. For no reason. I was mortified and jumped up immediately to discipline Evan, but the look on the mom's face said it all. And it didn't just stop with just the one baby. Half way through the class Evan decided he didn't like how his friend Michael was shaking his maraca and hit him. Thankfully the mom of Michael was more understanding and told me it was ok while giving me a sympathetic look. Sigh! I'm almost embarrassed to see what this week's class is going to bring because I don't want Evan to be labeled as the class bully.
I then took Evan to John's softball game this past Sunday because the weather has been so nice and he adores being outside. As with any softball field there are kids everywhere, which meant more opportunities for Dr. Hyde to rare his ugly head. Anytime Evan sees a kid he is drawn to them and runs right up. Most of the time it's ok and I'm usually thankful that he's so outgoing, but not this time. The first kid he saw sitting on the bleachers he decided to run up and hit. So, the rest of the night was spent with me trying to play buffer between Evan and any kid he saw. It was exhausting.
Everything I've read said that this is just a stage and it will pass, but I'm ready for it to be over now. It's embarrassing and I don't want people to think this is how we raise Evan. I've been working with him to try and channel his anger or whatever this feeling is inside of him that is making him hit into other ways but it's hard to do with a 17 month old. Hopefully as his language skills develop he'll get better with emotions, but until then I'll be taking every preventative measure necessary to keep Dr. Hyde at bay.
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