We have just moved to Brisbane and the kids have started daycare 2 days a week and have been going for about 5 weeks. My oldest is 3 and she gets upset when I drop her off and is often crying when I pick her up. The teacher told me today that for about 45 mins before I picked her up she started crying on and off but said she didn't know why she was crying. I'm worried that she's not making friends and I asked the teacher who said that most kids have made solid friends by this stage, but that she hasn't. Although she has a couple of girls that she seems to hang out with a bit. I'm just worried that she's not going to make friends and I don't want her to be unhappy. Is this normal 3 year old behaviour?
Very Shy 3 Year Old
- paddie
- QLD, Australia
- Total posts: 14
- Little MaMa
- SA, Australia
- Total posts: 414
I don't think there is such a thing as normal 3 year old behaviour, both my girls were vastly different.
My middle doesn;t seem to give a hoot what anybody thinks or about friends as she is happy playing alone. But my eldest was always more sensitive and needs approval from EVERYBODY!
She didn;t make friends easily at daycare. She only had 1 real friend and when she was away she had nobody to play with. There was a period whe I was pregnant with my third that she all of a sudden started to hate daycare get really clingy and say that none of the other kids liked her. I don't know if my pregnancy contributed to the insecurity. My guess is that your recent move might be exacerbating things.
The friend she did have (and I have saying this about a 3-4 year old) was controlling and didn;t like DD1 to have any other friends and was really nasty if she reached out to anybody else.
We were very worried like you that she would not make friends easily.
Now after 6 months of kindy and 6 months of school she is a different girl. 2 reasons I think, seperation from that particular little girl allowed her to interact with other children and..... I thouroughly reccommend kindy/schools as they are far more on the ball about the relationships and behaviour of the kids.
Daycares try there best but the kids are younger and they are more of a babysitting service rather than an educational institution.
She now has loads of friend at school and fits in very well and we have no problems.
Sorry for the long ramble but I just want to reassure you that this could be very temporary and that as she moves on the things that you are worried about may not happen.
Just fyi When my DD1 was upset about not having friends I just used to tell her how much WE loved her and go through the long list of people in the family who loved her and told her that friend are nice but the people who love you are what really counts.
Hope that this helps somewhat smile
My middle doesn;t seem to give a hoot what anybody thinks or about friends as she is happy playing alone. But my eldest was always more sensitive and needs approval from EVERYBODY!
She didn;t make friends easily at daycare. She only had 1 real friend and when she was away she had nobody to play with. There was a period whe I was pregnant with my third that she all of a sudden started to hate daycare get really clingy and say that none of the other kids liked her. I don't know if my pregnancy contributed to the insecurity. My guess is that your recent move might be exacerbating things.
The friend she did have (and I have saying this about a 3-4 year old) was controlling and didn;t like DD1 to have any other friends and was really nasty if she reached out to anybody else.
We were very worried like you that she would not make friends easily.
Now after 6 months of kindy and 6 months of school she is a different girl. 2 reasons I think, seperation from that particular little girl allowed her to interact with other children and..... I thouroughly reccommend kindy/schools as they are far more on the ball about the relationships and behaviour of the kids.
Daycares try there best but the kids are younger and they are more of a babysitting service rather than an educational institution.
She now has loads of friend at school and fits in very well and we have no problems.
Sorry for the long ramble but I just want to reassure you that this could be very temporary and that as she moves on the things that you are worried about may not happen.
Just fyi When my DD1 was upset about not having friends I just used to tell her how much WE loved her and go through the long list of people in the family who loved her and told her that friend are nice but the people who love you are what really counts.
Hope that this helps somewhat smile