Monday, April 30, 2007

My kids are going commando. Why am I the only one who finds it funny?

So...my 5 year old dresses herself. In the morning she gets up, goes potty, brushes her teeth and hair and dresses herself. She also helps my 2.5 year old get dressed. This morning I get an angry call from daycare, that my 5 year old doesn't have underwear on, and she has no extras in her cubby. This happened about 2 weeks ago as well. The first time I think I laughed. This time, they were pissed, and said she had to go home. I laughed and said I would bring her some underwear. Frankly, the whole time I am thinking that the chances that the 2.5 year old is also going commando are pretty high. But daycare is not amused. They say I can bring some underwear this time, but next time she has to go home. So..I bail out of work and hurry over there to take her to buy some underwear (there is a dept store about 5 blocks from daycare). When I get there, she has underwear on. They got it from my 2.5 year old's cubby, as well as underwear for the 2.5 year old, who (as I guessed) was also commando. I sat my 5 year old down and told her she had to wear underwear that it was important for health reasons. She said she just forgot (which I totally believe) and said she was sorry. I emphasized that she would need to remember in the future. I had a similar (with less fire and brimstone) talk with my 2.5 year old.

Then we get a note from the director of our daycare stating that if it happened again, the kids would be sent home and could not return until the next day.

I think that is nuts. I mean, what is the big deal. From now on we will check to see if they have underwear in the morning. But, as long as they get underwear, what is the point to send them home? To punish them? To punish me? Seems like overkill. While this has happened 2x in 2 weeks, it never happened before at school (she did the same thing to us on Sunday).

Am I missing something? What is the big deal, seriously. I asked if she was doing anything inappropriate (like playing with herself, or something) and they said no. So c'mon! Make her put on the underwear and get on with the day. Am I under-reacting?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Interesting post. I’m just sorry it took someone this long to respond to it.

Anyway, I have 2 girls, ages 6 and 4, and we are going through the same thing. I really don’t see the big deal in forgetting to wear underwear to daycare; Isn’t that the place were kids should feel safe, and not traumatized and/or centered out in front of the class for not having any on!?

The Preschool that I send my kids to is very flexible and understanding. They even have a stock of undies for kids who run out or just innocently forget to wear any to school. Of course, they charge you for the undies, but at least you don’t have to take time off from work and run to the store or back home to get them some.

That daycare is the worst, and by the sounds of it, shouldn’t be taking care of small kids! I highly recommend that you find an professional daycare center for your kids, and talk to the new school’s teachers regarding the issue and ask them for their support during this phase. Kids are kids. They are not little adults.

I know that this post is late, but I hope it helps. Cheers!

Michael said...

With me when I was the age of those girls I got a crush of my dark blue stripe decorative underwear that I always put on my underwear though I couldn't take of my underwear! If I am by those girls and their not wearing underwear I'd weep and wet my underwear on front of them!