Everyone Thursday: Cap Toe Ballerina Flat

My daughter has “super hero” spirit day at daycare tomorrow. She has no super hero clothes. Anyone have a simple “costume” I can pull together in less than an hour tonight? Or can I just put her in a Minion/Frozen/Minnie/Paw Patrol etc shirt and say that’s her costume?

I just finished “The Whole Brain Child” and liked it a lot (like, copied some of the pages and hung them on my refrigerator). I’m starting “The Emotional Life of Toddlers.” I haven’t gotten very far into it yet, but so far I can say that it isn’t as awesome as Whole Brain Child and maybe veers toward a version of attachment parenting theory that feels a little like mom-shaming? Will circle back when I finish it.

I also liked How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk. For the toddler set, Happiest Toddler on the Block presented some of the same strategies but in a more toddler-friendly way (I ignored the discipline/time-out advice in Happiest Toddler).

Another one on my reading list is “No Drama Discipline.”

For basic “care and feeding” literature, the American Academy of Pediatrics publishes a book titled, “Caring for Your Baby and Young Child.” I use it as a reference manual for health concerns, safety issues, learning about development at a given age, sleep issues, etc.

Advice needed on daycare biting. My 18 month old daughter has been bitten twice by the same kid, completely unprovoked. The most recent time broke the skin. According to the provider, my daughter was sitting listening to music, and the other kid came up and chomped down on her leg. My daughter has recently started withdrawing, watching the other kids from the sidelines instead of playing with them. Historically she loves daycare, and it makes me really sad that this issue is potentially impacting her enjoyment (or maybe she would be goIng through this phase regardless…who knows). This is an ongoing problem with this kid. She’s repeatedly bitten at least two other kids over the course of several months. And her older brother used to have the same problem (thankfully he’s moved on to a preschool center).

From what I can tell, daycare separates this kid when there are issues, but it seems entirely reactionary. I don’t really know what they can do proactively. I’m going to ask about a formal policy today. It’s a licensed home daycare, and there aren’t a ton of written policies, other than the fact that they follow the written state regulations, which don’t address biting. So I’m not expecting that they’ll have a formal policy.

I completely understand that toddlers bite sometimes, but it upsets me that there’s an ongoing issue that doesn’t seem to be getting better. The kid’s parents don’t seem to care. When another kid was bitten by her several times, the mom just laughed and said “kids will be kids.” After the most recent biting of my daughter, at pick up the dad said to his kid “can you apologize” and his kid screamed “no!” And the dad just laughed and threw up his hands. If they were apologetic and said they were trying to work on it, I would feel very different about the situation. But that isn’t the case, and it’s starting to make me really mad.

Any advice? Should I confront the parents? Confront daycare for not doing more? Nothing because I’m overreacting? I just want my kid to be happy and reasonably protected from harm.