Homework and Tantrums

I love my son.  He's the "good" one.  I know, I know, we're not supposed to label our children or call them our favorites - but each of my children are excellent at different things, and each have their own special place in my heart...Isaac is my smart, quiet one -- the one who reminds me so much of me when I was a child.

So, yesterday when he came home from school, he was in a bit of a tiff.  He turned on his gameboy and life went on.  I dig in his backpack and discover that he had homework.  Isaac never has homework.  It was math too, his easiest subject.

So I call him out of his room and tell him he needs to finish his homework before he can continue playing.

This, apparently, was a huge mistake.

He cried, he screamed, he ripped his bed apart.  Sheets all over the place, pillow tossed across the room, everything was everywhere.  He came out and I said "what's going on, is there something you want to talk about?" and he threw another fit all the way down the hallway.  He cried and sobbed till his eyes were swollen and he had those crying hiccups.

More than an hour later, he comes out and I go over the homework that he had to do...this was the most basic of basic.  Patterns.  He's been doing patterns since kindergarten. In less than 10 minutes, he was done.  He grinned sheepishly and asked for his gameboy back.

I still don't understand what all the fuss was about.