deep breathing

Drew loves kindergarten. He plays with everyone and follows every rule. His teacher commented one day, when Drew was cautiously walking with an untied shoe, that he was cautious about everything. Which, she pointed out, was the opposite of his sister.

Anyway, so Drew loves school. He is always all smiles when we pick him up. As we start walking to the car he starts walking slower and slower, like he is running out of gas. By the time the door to the van shuts, he is out of gas and running on angry fumes. He usually lashes out at a sister pretty soon after his seatbelt clicks. Lily uses this opportunity to repay him for all of the times that he has quietly pushed her buttons until she explodes.  Yesterday was no different. That exact scenario repeated itself another day. 

Every day I check backpacks before I leave my parking spot. It's one of my strategies for dealing with my disorganization. I look over stuff, sign permissions, etc., so that I don't have to think about it again. I pulled a drawing out of Drew's backpack just as he wallops Julianna. I warn him to cut it out and distract him by asking about his drawing. He angrily explained, "It's a picture of me angry taking a deep breath!" I said, "Oh, what a good idea. You can practice that now!"

"I don't need to practice! I can't do it!"

"Well, you need to figure something out because if you continue to be grumpy you will be practicing your deep breathing in your room at home."

He then took three or four deep, quick, huffy breaths and retorted, "See! I did it! It doesn't work!"

 After this exchange, I pulled into traffic behind a slow moving line of cars. drew started yelling at the truck in front of me to move out of the way! Go you crazy truck! MOOOOVE! This made me chuckle, because it was so over the top. I didn't respond. In fact, I have no idea where he picked up road rage. I am usually pretty laidback when I drive.

I swear to you, not three blocks later, Drew said, "Mom! That deep breathing works! I did it and now I feel better!"

Whew! I guess we do learn everything we need to know in life in kindergarten.