Bad Habits

My son has picked up a few habits while at the daycare. Some are good. He no longer freaks out when we drop him off--he just goes to where the teacher tells him, looks at me and says "Bye". He talks a LOT about "baby school", at least a lot more than he did before daycare. He also hasn't had any issues with hitting kids in a long time, and when I've been able to watch him secretly he seems to have some kids he has made friends with. He says 'please' and 'thank you' regularly. Those are all great social behaviors that I worried he would not ever acquire, so yay.

Attending daycare, however, my son has acquired some bad habits from his peers. Some are driving me a bit crazy. Before daycare, my son only cried when he was hurt or was in trouble for something. But now, if you tell him 'no', he starts to 'cry'. I mean he goes through the SOUNDS of crying without actually crying. He even puts his fingers in his mouth for extra dramatic effect! And it's the most fake 'cry' I've ever heard, too. My husband still hasn't figured out the difference, but I can tell without even looking at my child that he's faking.

Another thing my son does is respond to everything you ask him with a casual "no". Zane went from never saying the word 'no' to using it all the time. Pretty much every question you ask him is answered "no", no matter what. Right now I have to assume that he does mean 'no', until data convinces me otherwise.

The final behavior my son has been exhibiting since he started daycare is sheer bossiness. He's been ordering everyone in the house around these days, and if we don't do as he says he tells us to "go and sit!" It's cute when he's ordering one of the cats around, but not so much when he's telling me which chair I can sit on. I've been put in Zane's version of 'time out' several days in a row for not complying. We won't talk about Daddy.