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Parenting

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Nearly three-year-old suddenly misbehaving at nursery, should I be concerned?

5 replies

TheSunnyDog · 22/06/2026 18:49

Just looking for an outside perspective / advice from anyone that has maybe experienced similar. We’ve had two messages from our nursery in less than a week about my daughter misbehaving. She’ll be 3 in a couple of months and has been going to the same nursery since she was 10 months old. No concerns raised about her behaviour before this. The pattern seems to be that she has a good morning but then a bad afternoon, which will consist of doing things like screaming, climbing on things she shouldn’t be, throwing things she shouldn’t be throwing, etc. Nursery called to ask if there was anything going on at home that might be causing this but honestly nothing major has happened in the last week! I am pregnant with #2 but she’s known about it for ages and we do talk to her about it, read books, etc. Nursery seems to think she’s been misbehaving to get attention. And I guess at the moment she gets our full attention at home because she’s an only child, so I’m at a bit of a loss as to how to help correct the behaviour that’s happening when she’s not with us. I’ve asked nursery if we can have a longer chat about what’s been happening / what we can do to help but just wondered if anyone has experienced similar? Is this just her reaching the “threenager” phase a bit early and she will eventually grow out of it or do I need to be more concerned about nursery bringing it up?

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HotPodiumGuysGirl · 22/06/2026 22:53

Late onset Terrible Twos. Keep calm and keep your routine going. The heat won’t help. Has the nursery dropped one of her naps?

ExplodingSmittens · 23/06/2026 05:57

It could be a multitude of things. As the PP said it could be a lack of naps or the weather. It could also be a change at Nursery. A lot of the older DC will be leaving for School and staff will be taking annual leave.

Watercooler · 23/06/2026 06:00

Hot weather, worries about being left behind when baby arrives. My 3 year old was just hungry a lot. If I fed him constantly he would behave well.

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TheSunnyDog · 23/06/2026 19:22

Thanks everyone - my immediate thought was it’s the heat and her getting overtired. She dropped her nap ages ago and was always a terrible napper anyway. But I’ve noticed at weekends she flags a bit in the afternoon when it’s hot out. She seems happy enough in nursery when they do water play but isn’t engaging so well in other activities which again points to the heat. They’ve asked us in for a meeting now so I’ll mention the heat/ tiredness but just don’t want them to think I’m being dismissive by blaming the weather!

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ExplodingSmittens · 23/06/2026 20:47

Ok so if they’ve asked for a meeting I would do this simple progress checker before you speak to them. She’s probably fine but it will highlight if she has any issues with communication or understanding.

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