Fit of Anger

In a fit of rage, Marty approached me, angry that I said that he couldn't watch television. Even though he's only eight, his anger can manifest itself in different ways, including sometimes, him trying to hurt himself. So, I was on alert for what was about to happen.

He came up to me as I was sitting down and screamed a frustrated, "Aaaarrrggghhhh!"

Then he grabbed my leg and started pulling on my shoe. Confused, since this wasn't exactly what I was expecting, I asked, "What are you doing?"

He ignored the question and went right on tugging on my shoe. Finally, he gave up trying to just pull it off without untying it and took a moment to loosen the laces, before yanking it off. He then hurled it to the floor.

Still angry, he grabbed my foot again and took off my sock, and hurled that to the floor.

And...that was it.

Oh, he was still mad. He went and grabbed some small free weights that we have around the house and started lifting those, announcing that he was going to exercise. Then he peeled off his shirt and went running around our yard for a few minutes. After that, he seemed to be fine.

But, back to the shoe. I don't understand that one. I watched to see what he was going to do, because I honestly didn't know. I was half expecting to see him start pounding on the table with it, ala Krushchev.

I know that there's something about shoes in Middle Eastern culture...I seem to remember people throwing shoes at the fallen statue of Saddam Hussein, to the confusion of most Western viewers. But, I'm pretty sure that Marty hasn't gotten up to Middle Eastern culture in his social studies/history class. Last I knew, they were learning about the Great Lakes.

And, did the sock have some significance? Was it that not only didn't I deserve a shoe, but no sock either?

I've got a pretty good idea that I will never know what was going through his head in that moment, but I guess of all of the ways that he could've dealt with his anger, taking off my shoe and then exercising probably isn't all that bad.