Where'd The Discipline Go?

Aidan's been having some issues with following instructions. He's always done pretty well and I have, at times, bragged on his demeanor. While he's certainly still a toddler, he rarely throws a fit. He's gone through some stages of cranky behavior but he's a good boy. He wants to behave. That's why I was so concerned when he started acting out.

There are two behaviors that I've targeted as problem behavior. The first is general fit throwing. When I ask him to do something or when something isn't going his way, he starts screaming at the top of his lungs. He feigns crying but it's clearly a ploy to push back. This makes me crazy simply because it's unnecessary. It's not like he cannot communicate with us. He's a big boy who can just talk with his parents. We're not unreasonable and he's never had this issue before. Makes you wonder where it came from, huh? More on that in a minute.

The second behavior that I'm not going to tolerate is spitting. When asked, he says his friend at school spits. For obvious reasons, this is a serious behavioral problem. This begs the question of why this other boy is being allowed to spit at school. Aidan should be seeing this other boy being punished for spitting and it's clear that it's not happening. I scolded Aidan severely and told him that children who spit should be spanked and that Timmy should be spanked by his mommy. Aidan got all quiet after that. He only pretended to spit later.

Well, the screaming behavior has gotten increasingly worse in the past two weeks. Could it be the new classroom? Well, I'm ready to investigate that. I asked Jason if he'd noticed the discipline of the new classroom (Jason takes Aidan and picks him up most days) and he'd said that he's in such a hurry that he hadn't paid much attention. Well, let me tell you. I took Aidan this morning and things were out of control.

I dropped him off in the cafeteria as the kids were finishing their breakfast. The teachers were putting the plates away but the kids were screaming and running around the tables. The screaming was so loud that I couldn't talk to the teacher and she was less than two feet away. It was bad. When she told them to line up to go back to the classroom all the kids ran as fast as they could toward the hallway, where they formed a chaotic line. I'm requesting a video of his day. I really need to know if there is any disciplining going on in there.