Bad behaviour on starting school??

[ArizonaRobbins]

Please, please tell me it is normal for kids who have just started school to be badly behaved when they get home.

My 4.5 year old started in August and she’s an absolute bloody nightmare just now! She used to be the sweetest, most well behaved child in the world and she’s a demon now!

She’s so cheeky. Completely ignores me when asked to do something. Does silly things that she knows are naughty eg drawing on walls, that she’s never done before. So nasty to her little sister which is horrible.

And yet she LOVES school. So happy to go. Happy when we pick her up.

I keep sending her to her room when she kicks off, and telling her to come down when she can be nice/stop shouting etc and it does calm her down and diffuse the situation. But I feel crap.

I would say it's perfectly normal.

Its a whole new (exhausting, structured) world for a child, where they need to listen, and behave, and interact.

They need to let off steam later.

My DD has been horrendous from the moment, we leave the school grounds!!
She's playing up all evening and we are even having meltdowns at bedtime!!

Apparently it's normal and it's something to do with the release of being back in their safe place, after a day of being challenged.

Google After-School Restraint Collapse. I didn't buy it at first and by after reading, it kind of makes sense.

Hopefully they get past it soon, because I can't take another meltdown, over an apple 🙄

Totally normal unfortunately, especially at the younger end of the range 😊 kids act out where they feel safe if that's any consolation. It usually settles down once they get past the initial period of being overwhelmed by lots of new stuff and they develop a bit more stamina. I had a rule with my three that we didn't plan any kind of extra curricular stuff for at least a couple of terms when they started. DS1 started a couple of weeks after his fourth birthday, the month before he was at nursery having an afternoon nap, it was a tough start poor kid,

Well this is reassuring. Just wish I knew how to handle it!!

At least she waits until you get home - on a bad day, mine would come out of the classroom, tell me what I'd done wrong, lie on the ground and scream. In front of all her friends (and their parents). It does get better - 2 years on we sometimes get the screaming, but not the lying on the ground....

Fair. The walk home from school can be interesting on a bad day right enough 🙈

Yes normal. Bring forward bedtime and I would drop afternoon school clubs/activities for now. They are exhausted when they first start