October 3, 2012

Preschool Drama

So I have a cute daughter. I know that. She has ALWAYS been able to get male attention, it surprised me (and made me smile) when a boy who only looked a few months older than her, randomly walked up in D. I. and offered my LittleOne his balloon. She was like 16 months. The boy ran back to his Mom, and she smiled and said that was ok as long as he was sure he wanted to give it up. And he just insisted she was too cute, and needed a balloon..... Other things have come to her just as easily since.
That's that..... But today was.... interesting.
LittleOne is in Preschool. Yay! She's been loving it, and today I went and volunteered to help out all day. (It was also her first field trip, I think she had fun!) Now she's been telling me for weeks now how the girls aren't too nice to her at school, and how it makes her feel bad when they refuse to play with her and push her away. I didn't think too much about it figuring since it's preschool it must be a miscommunication or something.
Well, no the girls today did not want to play with her and made it pretty evident with haughty looks, scowls, and their tone of voice when they say "Sierra!" Yeah. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and guess its because they speak a different language. (Yes, my daughter; a white american in a Public, goverment run, preschool in Utah, USA is the minority in her class. ALMOST all the kids speak spanish and are very latin-american.) But then other things started drawing my attention......
 For one thing, as we played all the boys did everything she said. And as she played house they got all dressed in construction clothes & came to fix anything she'd tell them to, or stop fixing anything she said was fine. And they would come stand right in front of her to argue over things.....
Another boy came over and tried to talk to her during recess, asking her name. She shooed him away & he looked very forlorn. When I asked why she did it, she said he had hit her before. I told her that he was trying to be nice now and be her friend so maybe she would give him another chance. He came back a little later, looking sad, and offered her a toy he had on his finger. This time she accepted the toy & they played for a while. The boy looked as happy as can be after they played for a while by the time LittleOne was ready to move to a new game. (It was cute. This experience I actually really like.)
 Then the one thing that I just... well I'm sure its still being figured out by me more than she's even thinking of it. But I can't get that guilty, trapped look on her face out of my head. They were just finishing recess, and getting lined up to go back inside. The teacher was making sure everyone was coming. I was walking over to join them all (LittleOne had run infront of me), then I noticed that a boy kept leaning closer to her while standing in front of her. Then he kissed her! Right on the lips. She looked mad, and pushed him away. So he waited a few seconds, then came back over around and pinned her against the wall where she was lined up and just started kissing her over and over again.

My 4 year old LittleOne was being pinned to the wall by a boy and kissed over and over against her will. She made it obvious she didn't want it. I couldn't run over quick enough! I physically pulled him off & told him no. By that point, as I was pulling him away, the teacher noticed and apologized to me with a mortified expression.

I don't know. Maybe she's just meant for drama. 

4 comments:

  1. Wow. What an experience! You never know when your 4-year old comes home and tells you about their day (or doesn't say anything at all about their day) what their experience is really like. That is so crazy that all those things happened while you watched. Golly. I don't even know what to say. Do things like that really happen that young? Girls all being jealous of the girl all the boys pay attention to? And that boy who was kissing her... wow. I hope you get the opportunity to volunteer again and observe things, just in case you need to pull her out of that class!!!

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  2. Yeah... We've decided that we're just going to watch it. The next day (which was Thursday & her school week is Mon-Thurs)When asked if Mr. Rampunktious did anything. She said he just painted her elbows during painting time, which she didn't like. (And the elbows were painted)
    But I do have a little more incentive to come & volunteer more often.
    Thanks for responding Adele!

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  3. Kids at that age are still learning right from wrong, and you responded very appropriately to the situation. A firm NO and pulling him away was the right thing. The teacher is aware of the situation too, so I'm sure they'll keep an eye on it. It is okay to teach LittleOne to defend herself if that ever happens again. Shrink to the floor and cover her face while yelling for the teacher, yell NO! to the boy and push him away if necessary. She knew it wasn't okay, and it is perfectly in her right to gently but firmly assert herself if need's be.

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  4. Shoot! Not just gently! Firmly and fiercely!!!!

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