Contemplations,

So I went to pick up my baby girl from daycare, and waiting for me was a "incident" report.

The teacher was there to explain to me what happened, and as she half laughed, half sounded apologetic.

It seems that a classmate of maddie was playing with a wood board puzzle. She was banging the pieces together and just playing with it. Well Maddie loves puzzles, and is really good at them. We have one of the alphabet with the letters all of 2" tall, and she can complete the entire alphabet herself. She had taken the puzzle piece from the other child and put it in the puzzle. The child screamed. Teacher gave back to other child. Maddie then proceeded to do this again, with the Teacher enforcing the share, and play nice lesson. Well the third time Maddie grabbed the puzzle from the child who "was not doing it right" and wonked her with it.

The teacher was laughing, because it was so "you are NOT doing it right" behavior and not meant to be mean or selfish, but to show the other kid, who was not getting it how to do it. Maddie was frustrated that the other kid did not get it.

Wow.... at 21 months, my child shows this behavior. Now I had to try to explain to a 21 month old that "not everyone will play the same way as you". "not everyone will do it the same way as you".

To my child, it was black and white. A puzzle was for putting the pieces in, not banging them together. And she was determined to make that point. Could you bang them, chew them, other things that are not the original intent the maker intended for the puzzle? Yes. But why would you when you were supposed to put the puzzle together? Why would you do anything else with it?

I just had to laugh. Seems that my child's "play" parodies my own life in so many ways. I must explain to her, that if a person chooses to use the puzzle in ways not intended, that is their choice.