Who Are You And What Have You Done With My Badger?

I’ll probably kick myself for posting this and attracting karma’s sadistic attentions once again, but I am literally astounded at the difference that this new daycare has made for Bean, AKA The Wild Badger, or simply Badger, as he will henceforth be known on this blog. Which is sort of a weird play on Leave It To Beaver, if June drank a lot of wine and took out the recycling in a ragged nightgown and no bra and laughed really hard when Ward asked what was for dinner. Not that I ever do those things because I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, I ‘m A Woman, W-O-M-A-N. Or something.

Anyway.

Back to my point.

In two weeks, Badger Bean has:

1. Taken a nap every day. This is HUGE. He still needs naps, but short of hog-tying him, which is frowned upon, the old daycare pretty much gave up. Ms. C has him down and sleeping with everyone else. HUGE. I wanted to kiss her, but I thought she might not take it in the spirit of gratefulness and think I was just a weirdo.

2. Begun the day with a smile and greeted me with one at pickup. Seriously, he skips right past me with a cheery wave and a kiss, saying “Bye, Mommy!”

3. Started talking about “going to see Ms. C” and “going to school” when we are at home. Also huge. Disturbingly, I had started to hear him refer to himself as a “bad boy” in our last weeks at the other center. I do not think it was the teachers, but I do think the other child I mentioned before had started bullying him in earnest. I suspect but can’t prove that this was what pushed him over the edges of his tolerance and resulted in at least part of his own extreme behavior. (And before I get any hate mail from Perfect Parents Raising Perfect Children, please put down your Keyboards of Sanctimony. I do not and did not excuse Badger’s behavior – he was ALWAYS given consequences. Still, he was also a victim.)

4. Participated in activities in appropriate ways. Like has started painting figures instead of slopping paint around, does the lacing cards, and works quietly at his own table rather than bothering everyone else.

5. NOT BITTEN OR ATTACKED ONE PERSON. On Wednesday, I was greeted at the door with “We had a rough day” and I thought “Crap and double crap!”, but it turns out, the rough day involved merely being overly sensitive and  a couple of meltdowns that he recovered quickly enough from once given a time-out. To contrast, this would constitute a great day at the old center (No physical attacks! Woo!). We put it down to being tired since he’d gone to sleep later than usual the prior night. It is so nice to be greeted with a positive report at the end of the day and not receive calls at work that I could weep with joy.

In addition, he has also begun using the potty regularly, including waking me last night to use the potty, talking more and using longer sentences, and generally acting happier and being a lot more pleasant to be around.

I know the testing phase is still to come, as it inevitably will, so I am holding on to the hope that Ms. C has made enough of an impression, and the environment is sufficiently mellow that he will work through it without completely losing it like he did before. The changes I’ve seen thus far, though, are pretty remarkable.

In the meantime, to everyone who urged me to look into home daycares, and I hedged? Thank you, and I’m sorry I ever doubted there were excellent caregivers out there who could give Badger what he needed.

Finally, to my little Badger, I am so sorry I waited until things were so miserably unbearable for you that you reacted in the only way you knew how to let us know. You just aren’t cut out for large group daycare, and I won’t ever force you to go to one again.