Hi mumsnetters,
I’m looking for some reassurance or experiences please because I’m really worried.
Yesterday my DD (5) school called me in for a meeting. The head of reception and her class teacher were in the meeting and they were taking notes on a laptop. They explained that during a PSHCE lesson about feelings and what makes them sad, my daughter put her hand up and said: “I feel sad when mummy hits me.”
I was completely shocked as I do not hit my children and never have. I don’t raise my voice and try very hard to model calm behaviour. I told the teachers honestly that I had no idea why she would say this.
They said they spoke to her again later that day and she couldn’t give any examples or expand on it at all. When I spoke to my daughter myself later, she didn’t even remember answering this question in the lesson!
In the meeting I mentioned that around 1.5 years ago there was one incident where I was teaching my older child and DD kept disrupting. I physically pushed her out of the way (not hit her) and afterwards I apologised to both children and explained it wasn’t the right way to handle it. This is genuinely the only thing I can think of that she could have interpreted as “hitting”.
Since the meeting, I’m now worried that by mentioning this example I may have inadvertently made things worse 😭or given them something that could be used against me, even though it was a one-off situation, a long time ago.
The teachers advised me to explain to her about lying and making up stories, which I have done gently.
Since then, I’ve been extremely anxious about whether this could escalate into council / social services involvement. I have nothing to hide, but I’m worried about how these things are handled and whether something like this can be taken further even when there’s no evidence and the child can’t recall it.
Has anyone been through something similar? What usually comes out of situations like this?