It’s official. I am the parent of what people diplomatically like to call a “spirited” child. It’s code for “high maintenance” or — the less polite version — “demanding little shit”.
When did I discover this? I think it first really dawned on me when the woman who ran my little girl’s family daycare called to tell me she was giving us notice and that she’d had enough of madam’s difficult behaviour.
Mortified doesn’t even begin to express my reaction. Devastated, angry, shocked, confused — I was all of those things (but more on that later.)
According to — let’s call her Bev — my sweet darling child, who had for the last year been playing harmoniously with her little friends at daycare and generally loving life, had over the last month or so developed a penchant for snatching toys, grabbing, hitting and being an all round disruptive little turd. Not that it was happening constantly — it was maybe one day in every five that it was rearing its ugly head — but clearly it was enough for Bev to put her in the “doesn’t play well with others” category.
Now, I feel it important to add this little detail here as it does have some bearing on the situation. My daughter is 20 months old. That’s right, she’s not yet two.
I’m no childrearing expert or cognitive scientist, but it’s a universally known fact that toddlers aren’t too hot at reasoning or impulse control. It’s not until they hit three that the part of their brain develops which allows them to exercise self-control and develop those all-important social skills.
So as you can understand, my first response was: Isn’t this behavior pretty normal? Is this not just a classic toddler phase that we can work through together as her caring team?
Apparently not. After a year of getting to know my little girl and us (I naively thought we were friends!) and having no problems or concerns whatsoever, all of a sudden we were deemed “not the right fit”. No discussions, no “let’s try this and see how it goes”, it was game over.
The challenges with finding another childcare space at short notice notwithstanding, I found this a really hard pill to swallow. I’ll admit, my daughter is high maintenance. She’s boisterous, energetic, bossy. She likes things her own way. She sometimes says “no” just to see what I’ll do. Right now she’s testing the waters, seeing what she can get away with. But she’s also charming, hilarious and loving. She responds with affection to people who engage with her. She’s whip smart — already — and curious about the world around her.
For someone who knows and has developed a relationship with my child to want to suddenly wash her hands of her was completely devastating. It was rejection — plain and simple. I felt — I still feel — incredibly let down.
I spent 24 hours obsessing over the situation, doubting myself and my parenting skills, my stomach a big heavy knot of anxiety. How could she do this to us? Didn’t she love my daughter? Doesn’t she care what happens to her and want to help her? And also, bubbling away behind all of the hurt, how the hell am I going to find another childcare place? I’d turned down two waitlist spaces in the last three months because I foolishly believed we’d found the perfect environment.
I even took to my parenting group on Facebook to ask other mums if they thought the behavior Bev was describing warranted this extreme reaction.
That’s what really helped put things into perspective for me. The support I got from other mums — including my own, herself mother to a very spirited child — was incredible.
Top Comments
While I sympathise with you with regards to having to deal with your daughter losing her place in day care and the reason why, based on what was said in the article to me it seems you have approached this problem the wrong way and with the wrong attitude, which is probably why the carer wanted to end the relationship quite bluntly. My son is the same age. All the behaviours you listed exhibited by your daughter are absolutely normal and I have seen in many children including my own of the same age. However; just because the behaviour is normal does not make it tolerable or give us an excuse to ignore it or not correct it. All toddlers are "spirited" but not all toddlers are correctly guided and redirected from poor behaviour which is when it becomes a problem. If the behaviour is corrected at home consistently then it makes it much easier for the carer to maintain control and continue to correct behaviour when you are gone. No child at any age should be constantly hitting, grabbing and behaving in a volatile manner. The fact that an experienced child carer felt they could no longer provide safe care for your child means that this behaviour was not occasional. If I was in your position I would have an appointment booked with a pediatrician asap and seek as much help as possible to effectively control the behaviour so this doesn't happen again as she grows older and develops the ability to understand the rejection.