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My eldest daughter started school in September. When I pick her up I usually ask her how her day went. She always responds: “Great!” with a huge smile on her face. Obviously being a nosy mom I want more information: “But what did you do?” The answer is always a variation of the following: “I had fun!!!! First L hit me, then I cried, then I hit G…. then C took my toy away so I cried, then I took her toy away and said no….she then poked me and I poked her back….”
How can this be fun? To me this sounds like a constant struggle of survival, the ritual kicking of the underdog and a throw back to the Wild West.
I got a bit concerned at first and spoke to the teacher to see if my daughter was being bullied. The teacher looked at me with incomprehension…. “Mais Madame” she said, “They are three years old, how else do you expect them to interact?!” Yet again I stood out as the overprotective Anglo-Saxon mom. Tell you what, I am so happy not to be 3 anymore, where getting hit by my peers is the order of the day…..
– Emilie
Comments (7)
Isn’t that the truth! I get the same reports driving home from daycare with my 4-year-old. And when I ask the teachers about it, they just give me the, “They’re 4. It’s totally natural.” Well, it may be natural but it also can be redirected and discipline and control can be reiterated.
My response, “I wish for them to interact with respect and love and gentleness!”
I am laughing, only because my 3 year old does the exact same thing…..and she gets all excited about getting ice from the teacher to put on her boo-boos (boo-boos I can’t see btw).
well then I’m lucky, nothing like this happens to my son (or daughter)!!
I get the same thing for my 5 year old boy.
“They are 5 year old boys, it is behavior you should expect” the teacher said it rarely happens to girls. My question is “really” ?!?! And I’ve been getting this since he was 3. does it ever stop, or are we constantly struggling forward against those elements of the untamed west?
my 4-year-old daughter can’t stop talking about getting married, her boyfriends (which change daily!) and about whom she plays doctor with (sic!)….i wouldn’t mind a bit of good old rough and tumble violence.
That’s funny. Here in London the teachers are overly concerned about this. I’ve shown up to pick up my son from nursery, and the teacher has taken me aside and told me that he was bit by another boy at circle time, and could I please sign a waver that I acknowledge this happened and that I won’t sue them or use it against them, blah, blah, blah…
Crazy, huh?
One time they forgot to tell me that he was hit on his shoulder, and so I got a call from the teacher that evening apologizing for not having told me. She said, ‘in case you notice a bruise on your son’s shoulder, I just wanted to tell you what happened at school.”
It’s SUCH a big deal there.
Personally… I’m not too fussed about it. It’s all part of growing up and learning how to convey emotions and anger, etc.
courtney, i couldn’t agree more. although i did freak out a little when the mother of a boy who had bitten my daughter on several occasions said to me with a smile that this was just her son showing my daughter that he liked her….