How much hitting is normal among 2 year olds?

[Circumlocutious]

DD (just turned 2) goes to a nursery that we’re generally happy with. But over the last few months, there have been five separate incidents of her being hit by other children (of a similar age). A few marks, mostly mild, but one involving a set of keys near the eye (!)

Nursery staff have assured me that this is normal behaviour for this age, which makes sense. They try to teach the children empathy, emphasise turn taking etc.

However, at what point - if at all - does safeguarding etc come in to it? At what point should toddlers know not to hit? 3?

I don’t want to be too interfering, but the nursery does like to use ‘real’ objects to play with (hence the keys), which maybe suggests a need to be more careful..

It is pretty normal. I take it it was 5 separate children? If it was just one child and 5 incidents I would be more concerned, but at 2 they all push the boundaries and lose their tempers. Obviously some kids are worse than others.

At 2 years old it will happen, but 5 incidents over a few months does sound a lot. I think there also needs to be some context such as what exactly happened, were they being closely supervised at the time, how was it dealt with etc. I would be wondering if the children are bored or being supervised closely enough.

Two year old's are another breed aren't they ! Hitting is only the tip of the iceberg

2 years old are pretty much feral, as are quite a few 3 year olds. By school age they are generally much better, though it doesn't stop entirely.

5 incidents over 40 days and 4 or 5 children wouldn't be that many....but if lo attends one day a week 5 over 8 would be a lot.
Most 2 year olds do something like hitting, pushing or biting at some point until they understand the concept of turn taking sharing and using their words.

It’s normal and some children are far more likely to lash out than others. Younger twos are generally worse than older twos for this as they physically try to keep others away from the toy they have and aren’t yet enjoying playing with others. As they approach three they start playing with each other cooperatively much more and there is generally much less hitting.
Young twos are quite careless too, unaware of others around them so swing things and throw things without realising someone is going to get bumped. They also trip and fall more often as they are exploring their physical skills.

Incidents like this will lessen as your child moves into the preschool room with 3-5yo.

i take it it was 5 separate children?

The nursery wouldn’t be able to tell op anything about the other child.