My son, the Storyteller...

My son is becoming a story teller.

It's not his fault...really. If the resident daycare bully (who happens to be a girl who is 6 months L's junior) hadn't decided L was a good target a few months back, we wouldn't be where we are now. And maybe it's a little bit of my fault too, I guess.

It started a few months ago when my DC lady showed me the first bite mark upon pick up...She apologized profusely, and said she had really tried to keep her eye on The Offender as much as possible, but while trying to do this AND make lunch (how dare she take her eyes off to make lunch??), said Offender quickly blindsided L and sunk her teeth in. She comforted L, and Offender was scolded for being naughty and given a time out.

I assured her that it was okay, L would live, and life would go on.

When I asked L what happened, he matter of factly told me "C bit me - C naughty, time out C!"

Now, I really was not upset about the biting, I mean, when you have 10 kids around, and some are of the age of learning about proper and improper ways to show anger and frustration, there are bound to be some incidents. And to be completely honest, I was thankful she was telling me my child was the victim and not the offender! Call me crazy or a bad mom or whatever, but I hope I NEVER have The Biter...I mean, kids get thrown out of daycare for that! I have known kids to get thrown out of MULTIPLE daycares for that! And god knows it is hard to find REALLY GOOD, affordable, convenient daycare, which is exactly what I have with my current daycare provider. So yeah, at this point, L was not badly hurt and I was glad he was not The Offender.

In light of this fear, I though "hmmmm, this would be a good opportunity to use this as a learning experience about not biting" so I proceeded to stress how naughty C was for biting, and that we DON'T bite people, and if we do, we are in trouble and get a time out. I thought my plan was working perfectly since whenever we talked about biting, L immediately added that biting is naughty and is grounds for a timeout. Great!

The biting occurred a few more times, never very bad, but always accompanied by a very concerned daycare provider apologizing profusely, and after it happened a couple of times, promising that this was to be the last occurance, if it happened again, she would be asking the parent of The Offender to get their child as she cannot remain, and also asking me for reassurance that I was not going to pull L out of her daycare (???!!! Pull L out?? No way...I would definitely push for The Offender to be removed, but would not pull L out!)

I continued to use the incidents as opportunities to stress to L that we do not bite people, that it is not acceptable to express our anger or frustration in such a way...I was happy that he seemed to be catching on well.

Somewhere along the way, however, in his little brain, he must have come to like me talking about how naughty so and so was for doing such and such, because now I am getting stories of misbehavior by some kid or another practically every day!

I will walk in the door to daycare, and he will run up to me yelling "Mama! Mama!" throw his arms around me, give me my kiss, and then proceed to matter of factly tell me how so and so "bit me today" with the most serious look on his face!

Or we will be riding in the car and he will proclaim "C pinches people, Mama, dat naughty!"

Or the other day when we were in the grocery store, racing to pick up a few things and get home to make dinner, and he was NOT COOPERATING one bit - he wanted his boots / coat off, he insisted I carry him around the store (all 35# of him, in my preggo arms, trying to push a cart with the other hand - UGH!) and I told him he was being quite naughty and he said "No, I not naughty Mama, C naughty!"

Or how the story changed from he and another kid bumping into each other and him falling down and hitting his head to "J hit me Mama" while he points to the part of his head that he hit when he fell.

"No" I tell him, " J didn't hit you, you and J bumped into each other and you FELL DOWN and hit your head. It was an accident, L."

"No, mama, J hit me!" and his eyes get big and he shakes his head up and down.

My daycare provider is very good at telling me when something happens, in fact, I sometimes chuckle at the things she tells me about, or worries about. Although I can understand why she needs to be completely forth coming about everything that happens, but really, we are family, and I pride myself on being pretty down to earth in the aspect that I believe kids are going to be kids, and when they are with each other every day, things are bound to happen! So I am pretty confident that she is telling me the truth when I tell her the stories that L tells each day and she says she is pretty sure nothing like that happened today, etc etc.

So, part of me thinks it is fairly comical, because it IS fairly comical...He will come up with these things out of the blue and remind me how "C bites people" "C pinches people, Mama" etc. But part of me is a little concerned that my boy is turning into the boy who cried wolf!!

Or worse, that C's parents will find out that my child is smearing their precious little girl's name all over town!!

Although she IS a little bully...On that he is telling the truth...maybe just stretching it a little...I can't hardly scold him for being honest, now can I??