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4yo DD's grim behaviour at childminders - what to do???

9 replies

Toots · 24/11/2008 18:43

Never had any reports of unpleasantness from nursery she attended from 2.5 years until 5 weeks ago. They said she often lead the children in games but this seemed to be a happy thing that other children wanted to join in with.

There is a girl at the childminders who is apparently very nice and seems sweet to me. DD is apparently routinely saying not very nice things to her (her dad doesn't live with her) like 'MY dad lives with me. I see him all the time' in a way that is not remotely anodyne. This girl wanted to show everyone a picture and DD told her that no-one was interested. She tries to control where this girl can and can't sit. When I tried to talk to her about it this weekend ('do you think it's nice to talk to xxx how you do? How would you feel if...' etc) she burst into anguished tears and got on the floor and lay there. I didn't really know what to make of that.

Today I'm told that dd wet herself. She never used to wet at nursery but is wet every day at home. Like every day. I have tried various things but it still happens, now I just tell her to go and get changed and don't make a big deal of it. At the childminders she pretended it was water and wouldn't say any more about it.

DD is a very strong and able character, who needs to know lots of information about her surroundings. She has a sister of 7 and a lot of the time they play really well together. I'm sure she is fed up sometimes that she is not top dog at home (who isn't?) I feel pretty low about this. The wetting never happened at nursery. Why at the childminders? And come to that, why everyday (once sometimes more) at home? But far worse is the behaviour towards this girl. I've no reason to doubt the childminder.... don't know what to do.

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dustystar · 24/11/2008 18:47

Was she attending the CM before or only since she stopped going to nursery? It sounds as though she is unsettled by the move. What has the CM said? Obviously you need to deal with this at home too but the CM should have some ideas for how to tackle this.

mabanana · 24/11/2008 18:49

why did you move her from nursery to childminder? She doesn't sound at all happy about it.

Toots · 24/11/2008 18:52

No. The CM just gives me daily reports of DD's misdemenours. I said to her tonight that she and I need to have a proper chat without DD there and come up with a plan.

DD has had a big change really. She left day nursery as a place come up at the excellent nursery attached to DD1's school. She started there in the mornigns just before half term having settled slowly into the childminders where she goes 4 afternoons after school nursery which seems to be going really well. XXX attends there as well. I should speak to them about whether they have noticed anything.

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dustystar · 24/11/2008 18:54

Hopefully you and the CM will be able to come up with a plan.

dustystar · 24/11/2008 19:00

You could try to do a reward based thing with the CM. We do this with ds at school. He earns stars for good behaviour which earn him time on the ps2 when he gets home. Its an incentive for him to behave plus he knows I will hear about his day and know how its gone. Perhaps you could do something similar for her time at the CM. The wetting could well be a control thing. My neice did this a few months ago after months of being dry.

Toots · 24/11/2008 19:01

I do wonder if she's cross with me (for changing her world) and taking it out on xxx and that's why she's cross when I mention it.
Any thoughts on how to deal with it at home?

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mummyofboys · 24/11/2008 19:35

Is she happy to be left with CM? How does her approach going there differ from nursery, if at all?

Toots · 24/11/2008 20:05

She seems pretty happy to greet each new day. No problems getting dressed or even walking (a mile!) there. Runs straight into school nursery with nery a backward glance and is gurning in a jolly fashion when I collect her from CM.

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MollieO · 24/11/2008 23:59

I wonder if you should be talking to the nursery rather than the CM. If your dd and the other girl are at the same nursery then it may be something that is happening there, in which case neither you nor your CM will know.

My ds really didn't like one of his CM's mindees but the CM never 'got' it. She thought that he would be upset when this mindee left to go to school but my ds was absolutely delighted. He didn't do anything to the mindee but I had a real battle every morning getting him to go to the CM.

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