A little while ago, I picked up my son from his dad's house. My son seemed frustrated and angry, and continued to act out (off and on) for an hour afterward, hitting the dog and being generally willful. Finally I told him it was okay to be angry, but not okay to hit the dog...hey, why don't we go hit pillows!

So we got the pillows off the bed and hit them for about 20 minutes, repeating, "I'm so mad! I'm so frustrated! I'm so sad! I'm so darned mad!!" He was laughing a little as we did it, but he was really into it. We even went over and started hitting the bed with the pillows. After a while, Brody walked across one of our pillows on the floor, and my son said, "Hey! Don't walk across our pillows!" so I started hitting the pillows again and saying, "I'm so darned mad!" He asked me what I was mad about and actually asked me if I wanted "to talk about it." I said I was mad that Brody had walked across our pillow, and we hit the pillow a few more times, then he said, "Yes...I think so...but...I think we'll feel better soon."

And that was that.

I think this was a big moment for both of us.

- Beth