The journey...G.I. Joe?

When people kept asking me when I had first suspected that there may have been a "problem" with our son, I had a hard time putting my finger on it. He was in constant motion in utero, but every expectant mom says that. He never slept more that 4 or 5 hours a night even when he was 14 months old, but everyone around me kept saying, "oh yeah, isn't it exhausting that babies don't sleep through the night?" or "oh, he'll grow out of it." When the extent of his naps were 15-20 minutes, 2 or 3 times a day, people started saying that "I needed to be tough and just let him cry himself back to sleep." Since it was my first child and I hadn't grown up with much experience around infants, I thought they must be right. I thought I must be overly sensitive due to my own sleep deprivation.

A glimmer of doubt began to creep in when we hit the 2's and 3's. My son seemed to overreact to everything...happy, sad, hurt, scared...overly emotional. If he had been a girl he would have reigned with the "drama queen" title. He was in constant motion and could not keep his hands to himself..."leap first; ask questions later" seemed to be his mode of operation, although, the questions later rarely came. A friend of mine jokingly told me one day that, out of his Sunday school class, our son was most likely to become a "G.I. Joe." We laughed at the time, but questions were beginning to form in my subconscious mind. What is wrong with me? Why can't I get my child to behave, follow directions, take turns, stop hitting and kicking. I had read every book about parenting that I could get my hands on and found that we were "doing all the right things." But every time I walked out the door to go somewhere with my child, I felt myself holding my breath...waiting for the moment that I would be completely embarrassed and make a quick exit from whatever activity we were engaged in.