Establishing Good Boundaries Takes Time

As a result of several behavioral experiences in Zane's daycare career thus far, my husband and I have a morning ritual as we drop Zane off at La Petite.

"Zane, no hit, no kick, no spit, and walking feet," we tell him as we are getting him out of his car seat. We do this because it is important to state the boundaries of a situation clearly and concisely(you can't assume that they know what to do, you have to tell them the expectation). Zane dutifully repeats what we have said, and then off he goes to 'school'.

Yesterday when we arrived to pick up Zane, Ms. YoGabbaGabba!(that is what Zane calls her) informed us that she had observed Zane while he was working on a puzzle. Whenever a peer would join him, she reported, Zane would address that child by name.

"Ethan, no hit, no kick, no spit, walking feet," he told the boy. His teacher imitated my son's 'bossy' tone perfectly, so I could picture it. Then it was Alejandro's turn, then Sierra, all the way down the roster of his classmates.

Larry and I thought it was great that Zane was able to repeat 'the rules' without us being around. Ms. YoGabbaGabba! then told us the punchline: immediately after bossing all of his peers to use 'walking feet', Zane got up and ran to get another puzzle.

So we still have work to do. But at least Zane didn't hit or kick or spit, which is an improvement.