Yuxin in Childcare

My little Yuxin has just started attending childcare (full day) last Wednesday. This is the start of nightmare. She did cry in the childcare centre but for a while only so it’s not too bad at school. After she came back from school, she starts to vent her anger and frustrations to her family, especially her mother. Even very very small things can agitated her, she became very fussy and she can cried so sadly as if we had ill-treated her. This really drained a lot of my energy and it is really really not easy to calm and console Yuxin. For the first few nights, it was horrible and every time she cried, it will last for hours. We never saw Yuxin behaved like that before.

Maybe Mommy had spoiled her previously or maybe Yuxin is a demanding child or maybe she feel very upset that Mommy send her to school because she thought Mommy don’t like her anymore, or maybe……

Day 1 (3 Apr 2008)
Happily go school and Mommy just stand aside to watch her enjoying the activities. Her lunch time is at 12pm and Mommy helped to feed Yuxin on the first day. Then followed by bathing and then milk time for napping. Mommy left the school when Yuxin was drinking her milk at around 1 pm. I thought so far so good but when I went to fetch her at around 5pm plus she was crying badly. The moment Yuxin saw me, she quickly ran to me and hugged me tightly and wanted me to carry her. The teacher told me that Yuxin started crying when she saw other parents came to fetch their children so the teacher advised me to come at around 4.30pm if possible for the beginning. When we were on our way home, Yuxin said “Mommy, 我想你(I miss you).” I replied “I miss you too.”

Day 2 (4 Apr 2008)
As usual, I had to wake Yuxin for school in the morning. However, she don’t want to wake up and said she don’t want to go to school. I tried to comfort her and told her school is fun and she agreed to go school without much resistance. This day, Mommy accompany Yuxin until 11.30am before she have her lunch. By 4.30pm, I went to fetch Yuxin and she seemed ok.

Day 3 (5 Apr 2008)
Ah ha… This day, she seemed to know I will leave her alone in school so she wanted me to stay beside her and I cannot stay at a corner to watch. After a while, Yuxin said she wanted to go home so I tried to talk to her to make her calm down but this can only last for sometime. Later, she totally did not want to play and tried to pull me away and wanted to go home and she looked like wanting to cry. The teacher advised me that it is better for me to leave now otherwise if I leave after her lunch, it may not be good for her digestion if she cry. I agreed with the teacher and left. Of course, Yuxin cried badly when I left her. Poor girl… Mommy love you, please don’t cry! By 4.30pm, Mommy was anxious to go fetch Yuxin and wondered how she is. I decided to bring her buy ice cream after school to make her happy. When I arrived and saw her in school, she was enjoying and I felt so relieved. The teacher told me that Yuxin only cried for a while and then she was back to normal.

When we walked out of the childcare, I told Yuxin that we were going to buy ice cream. I asked “Do you like ice cream?” She said yes. So we hold each other’s hand and walked happily to supermarket and I didn’t know nightmare is coming and I can be so embarrassed in the public. As I had mentioned before, even since Yuxin started attending childcare, she purposely misbehaved at home and became very demanding and very ordering and kept crying very badly. So Yuxin brought all of these ‘assets’ to the supermarket. After I had chosen the ice cream, Yuxin wanted to open immediately. I told her that she had to wait until Mommy get one more item and pay money first before you can open.

Do you think she will listen to my instructions? Ha ha… Easy guess, right? She insisted to hold onto the ice cream box and she managed to tear open the plastic wrapping. So Mommy was like doing wrestling with her in the supermarket, pulling her to walk and trying to snatch away her ice cream. I could not think of anything but to quickly pay money and leave. Even when I was paying at the cashier, Yuxin was still crying and making a lot of noise. After paying, I wanted to quickly leave who knows the ice cream promoter came and told me I had forgotten to ask for my free bag. This auntie also reprimanded Yuxin for making so much noise and make Mommy forgotten to do things.

So I quickly followed the auntie to get the bag and Yuxin was still trying to snatch the ice cream. Then, the auntie asked “Which colour you want?” I said “Anything will do.” So the auntie gave me a purple bag. Do you think the story end here? Because I had took the bag and can now leave the supermarket. Hahaha… Not yet…

Yuxin had switched and divert her attention to the PURPLE bag. On my way out, she managed to snatch the purple bag out of the plastic bag and she cried loudly “I don’t want purple bag, I want pink colour bag!” Then she THREW the purple bag back inside the supermarket. Three of the supermarket staffs were nearby and one of them picked up the bag for me. I was so very embarrassed by that time. I took back the bag and carry Yuxin and walked away as quickly as possible. By the time I reached home, Yuxin was still screaming that she wanted a pink bag. Oh my god! Actually, she doesn’t really fancy on the bag, she was just finding another opportunity to cry and vent her frustrations.

On the Weekends
Do you think she will not misbehave on weekends since there is no schooling? No no… Whenever there is a chance, she will start her crying again…

Day 4 (7 Apr 2008)
Monday, Mommy have to go office so I quickly drop Yuxin and left. Of course, cry again but teacher told me for a while only. I came back to fetch her at 5.30pm and she look happy in school.

Day 5 (8 Apr 2008)
Routine repeat again. Yuxin cried a while when I left and look happy when I fetch her.

Day 6 (9 Apr 2008)
Oh dear! Yuxin had fever! I was worried that she might get hand foot mouth disease since now is the peak period of this disease spreading. I quickly checked her hands, foot and mouth and found nothing. We let her see doctor immediately and luckily no sign of HFMD.

Last night (10 Apr), I told Yuxin if you recovered from fever you have to go school tomorrow. She replied “No. I cannot go school. I am still having fever.” She kept trying to convince me not to let her go school because she is sick. At such a young age, she can find excuses not to go school already. Nowadays, kids are really smart.

Today, Yuxin visited the doctor again because of cough and phlegm. Up to now, she is still behaving oddly. Hopefully, she can get use to go childcare and stop all her crying soon.