Rocking Horse Whiner

Ethan loves pushing things around, and one of his favorite things to push is the Radio Flyer rocking horse. It's light weight and slides easily around on the carpet. He makes laps around the furniture on his knees in the living room. He looks so proud and satisfied to be smooth-cruising with his prize horse. Unfortunately, it's not always easy. It's barely narrow enough to fit between all the furniture and some of the turns are pretty sharp. He concentrates very hard on steering. It's a very serious mission. If he gets stuck on something, he loses it. He cannot accept set-backs. He screeches and whines, cries and moans until he's free. Reverse doesn't seem to occur to him. I decided to stop helping him with it, so he could learn on his own and because it only seemed to lessen his patience the next time around. The horse wouldn't budge. Ethan was in complete despair. Finally, he got fed up, stomped around and angrily yanked at the front of the horse. He looked just like a man whose car broke down for the third time and he's late for supper. He'll fix this piece of junk! Just as soon as he gets going and the crying dies down, he gets hung up again down the way and the wailing continues. It is quite a sight, entertaining but disturbing.  It becomes more than I can bear. It doesn't seem healthy for such a small boy to have that much continuous frustration. I have to intervene, and he is mortified. He pulls away with all his might, yelling and struggling to get free and back to his fixation. How dare I interfere with a man and his work? How emasculating. This is the mother of all offenses and the storm is long and furious.

The horse has been confiscated until further notice.