Question
Yesterday, my 3.5 year old daughter was asked to clean up her mess by one of her preschool teachers. She said, "NO!" and ran away. The teacher followed her, knelt down, and said, "We don't say no to teachers." My child head-butted her so hard her teacher had a lump on her head. I have to say, I thought I would faint when I went to pick her up. I was taught and have practiced deep respect of teachers (I am one, as well) all my life. She certainly doesn't head-butt at home. I was calm. I told her we don't hit or hurt for any reason, and the doctor said that doing things like head-butting must mean she was getting sick and should go straight to bed after dinner. We went straight home, had dinner, and she was in bed by 5:15 (bed is usually about 6:30-7pm). In the morning, she quoted an apology to Miss B, and I wrote it down for her. She took it to teacher, said sorry, gave a hug. When I picked her up today, she had head-butted another teacher (who adores her) twice, as well as had four accidents when she usually only has one at most. I repeated the punishment of yesterday. Nothing is going on at home. We don't watch television habitually (sometimes 1-2 hours a week divided, if we haven't had potty accidents or lost all of our 5 tickets for saying "NO!" and refusing to do things). At 3.5, I don't know what she's thinking, nor do I know what else to take from her. I think my alpha voice is working just fine, but . . . . Is there something I'm missing besides, "We don't hit for any reason, not with any part of our body"? Because I say that too. Is this strange behavior for a three year old? She was a biter in the past and seems to have an issue with expressing frustration way too physically.
