Preschoolers Communicate In Subtle Ways

Thing 1 is hardly the Great Communicator. We usually need to pry information from him, and then it’s only 50% accurate and 50% preschooler imagination. But recently I’ve discovered he has his own, subtle way of communicating.

Yesterday he had a not so good day at preschool. We received the dreaded “incident report”, where I have to sign the report detailing his transgressions. It reminds me of the time SuburbanDaddy had to learn of his drunken, uh, transgressions, by reading the college police report the next day. But that’s a story for another time.

Thing 1’s transgressions were calling another boy “weird”, and not keeping his hands to himself. We had The Talk after dinner about his behavior, about treating people nicely etc., and it seemed to register. But we can never tell with Thing 1 because he just gets so quiet.

When it came time to pick the book to read before bed, he wanted to read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. He asked a lot of questions about why Alexander was having a bad day.

Then, it occurred to me that whenever Thing 1 has a bad day, he always picks this book to read! It seems to make him feel better when he sees Alexander have the same thing happen to him. And then he’s OK for while, until The Talk wears off, and we get another “incident report”.

3 thoughts on “Preschoolers Communicate In Subtle Ways”

  1. The incident reports.. ugh. I used to get them often.. I know it will be anyday now before the baby starts getting them sent home.. :)

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