What’s happened to my sweet little preschooler?!

[HelloMrDinosaur]

Oh my god.

Honestly she was the sweetest, most well behaved little angel. She started school last week and she is the absolute devil incarnate all of a sudden. The attitude. The noise. The mess.

Her sleep has gone all to pot. She will not do what she is told. Tantrums abound etc.

She does seem to love school though. Teacher says she’s settling in really well. She goes in without a backwards glance and is happy coming out.

I get that she’s tired and that this is a huge change for her. She’s only in until lunchtime for the next couple of weeks - god help us when she starts going full days.

Please tell me I am not alone...🙏🏻🙏🏻

You’re not alone!

I am past this stage now but I remember well the nightmare that was the start of school!

What’s happening is your DD is experiencing lots of new stuff in school, new rules, new friends, new toys, new food, new environment and it won’t all be pleasant for her straight away, some friends might be loud or pushy or mean, the rules might be confusing and the teacher might have funny smelling perfume it can be overwhelming. But, she knows she has to behave at school, she has to hold in all her feelings about all this new stuff which is exhausting so when she gets home, where she is safe, she relaxes and it ALL comes out. And that’s what you’re seeing now. It will settle down. Try and keep her sleep routine/pattern as normal as possible, maybe see if she will go down a bit earlier to make up for the tiredness. And remember to count to 10 before you react to anything

Thank you Joxer she is so desperate to please her teacher that I am beginning to feel usurped!

She was a little better this evening. Back to her cuddly self but talking nineteen to the dozen.

I could have written your post. My dd started on Monday, and they are in all day. It's exhausting

Well she’s got so much to tell you all about her new friends! cherish this. My eldest is 14 and grunts when I ask him about school.

You are not alone. All of mine seem to gain satanic tendencies when they start school!

God she’s come home crying today because she has no friends 😢 how do I deal with this??

Ask her who she sits beside, who she sat beside at lunch. Who she stands behind in the line etc. Then ask why they aren't her friends? Get to to tell you what makes someone a friend.
Sometimes they think someone has to say the actual word 'friend' before it can be classified as friendship (my dd2 was one of these!) I spent time discussing what friends look like and sound like, so she started to see the people who talked to her, played next to her etc could be friends.

Would that help?

DD was convinced she had no friends at school all through Reception and Y1. We moved areas for DH's job and she moved schools. She now (Y5) remembers everyone in her old school with affection. I think they don't really know what friends are but know the word and at 4 & 5, they maybe see other children playing together but can't really emulate that with their friends, or simply don't recognise it happening. I'm sure DD thought that friends held hands in the playground, so she didn't have any friends because she didn't hold hands with anyone at school.

If you can speak to the teacher to check she's happy during the day, that would probably be useful.