Toddler hitting and spitting at mom when being picked up from daycare?

A two year old in my care has been hitting and spitting at his mom when she picks him up at night. At first we tried to ignore the behavior but he kept going. We have been telling him gently to be nice and gentle and show him but he kept hitting his mom. We now have to give him T.O. and he'll be ok and say sorry then as she is putting his shoes on he hits again and will look at me in a "what are you going to do" stare. His mom takes away his TV time and we have also had to resort to me dressing him instead of his mom because he was being naughty. This has been escalating for sometime and now that mommy is pregnant it isn`t getting any better.

We normally have the TV on at that time because it is time to get diner ready. The TV is visible from the doorway and I beleive this may be part of the problem. I will talk to my children about changing our TV time and see if that helps.

thanks