Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Toddler Tug O' War

Craig had a dentist appointment today so I picked Jack up from daycare. To set the scene - I'm now HUGE, tired, waddling, had a rough day at work but ohhh, so looking forward to seeing my boy, seeing his little face light up and have him run into my arms shouting "mummy, I love you more than anything in the world!" Okay, slight exaggeration but you get my drift.

He was being a little rascal and wouldn't put his coat on to come home. His day care worker Serkalem said "Jack, do you want to come home with me?" and he said "yes!"   

I looked at her in disbelief.  Then she repeated it and he said "yes" again and she picked him up. 

Now I have my child crying "I want to go home with Serkalem!" It took me a few minutes of me shouting at him, prying her from his arms, to get him to the car. By this point he's crying properly and I'm unbelievably pissed off. And really upset. My child loves Serkalem more than me. Wants to go and live with her. I tell him he can go and bloody live with her, then take that back and tell him he can't live with her, that he lives with mummy and daddy and he's upset me and I don't want him to say it anymore. We argue all the way home. He's bawling. I have a little cry and feel like strangling the day care worker.

Phew. Sorry about that folks but it was therapeutic to type away like a mad woman and get it of my chest. I was typing so frantically I had about 1,000 typing errors and even pressed the "Caps lock" button without noticing for a couple of lines (don't you just hate it when that happens.)

I ended up ringing the owner and telling her about it, because this is about the third time this girl has done this to us and I think she's dead wrong. I'm told it's a cultural thing - that she means no malice, but it invariably ends up with Jack crying and me feeling like crap and tearful all the way home.  Is she being an insensitive little trollop or are my pregnancy hormones turning me into a tearful idiot?

And if she does it again, what should I do?

4 comments:

Strawberry Jam Anne said...

Oh that's a difficult one Pam. Really irritating for you, especially now when, as you say, your hormones are racing. Kids can be so trying and exactly when you don't need it! Suppose next time you see her you could explain what happened and that you would prefer her not to say it again. Good luck with it. If all else fails - take a deep breath - you know that Jack loves you more than anything in the world!

I DO THAT WITH THE CAPS LOCK AS WELL!!

A x

MikeH said...

It's been awhile since my boys were that small, but I think I wouldn't have a problem with it IF the child was okay with it, as Jack surely is not. It just gets him upset, and you upset, so that's a no-brainer; tell the little trollop to stop it!

Just my £0.02.

Clippy Mat said...

call her bluff!
go home and put your feet up.
?
what? not good advice?
what do i know?
i alrady raised MY kids.
and look how THEY turned out!
LOL
just kidding.
MY kids are perfect of course.
:-))

Pam said...

Thanks all for the blog & email messages, especially my friend Michelle who used to run a day-care centre. Am feeling much better today.

Hey Anne: Talked with Serkalem this morning - she doesn't speak very good English and of course I have a funny accent, so I think it went okay but one never can tell

Mike: I agree - he's upset, I'm upset, her ego if fed. She's a trollop (I do love that word)!

Clippy: I had a sneaky feeling if I called his bluff it would "bite me in the ass" as they say over here!