Abbie Gets in Trouble

Abbie got in trouble on the second day of school.  Yes…the second day.  I was so surprised!!!  Of all of the things I was worried about with Abbie going off to Kindergarten, her being a behavior problem was definitely not one of them!  Abbie is certainly not a perfectly behaved child and gets in trouble plenty around the house.  But I have never known her to get in trouble at school.  Ever.  Except her very first year of MDO when she would have to go sit in the office because she refused to sleep during nap time.  Ha!  But she was one a half then!  She was bound to get in trouble some time at school, I just never thought it would be on the second day.  But I actually think it turned out to be a good learning experience for her.

I was nervous and excited to meet her as she got off the bus on her second day of school.  I was anxious to see how the second day went and if she was still excited about school.  As we walked home from the bus stop, I could tell she was not quite herself and not as excited as she had been the day before.  I kept asking her about the day and she just kept a little quiet, which is definitely not like her!  We came inside and she was cleaning up from the day when it all flooded out.  She started by telling me that some other kids had gotten in trouble at school.  Abbie is very sensitive to the feelings of others, so it did not surprise me that seeing some other kids get in trouble in her class might have upset her.  I asked her what they had done to get in trouble.  Finally, she just broke down and said that she had gotten in trouble.  She was crying hysterically as I was asking her what happened.  I couldn’t understand what she was saying through the tears and sobbing.  I thought she was saying she punched a boy.  Then she was getting even more upset that I couldn’t understand what she was saying.
Well, it turns out she pinched a boy standing in front of her in line.  The class was on their way back from PE.  Mrs. Murphy was in the front of the line and Abbie was towards the back.  Apparently, the boy in front of her refused to move when the kids started walking back to class.  I completely understand how this happened.  Abbie is very afraid of getting lost at school.  I don’t blame her.  It is a lot bigger than her one hall preschool!  So as she saw Mrs. Murphy and most of the class walking away, she panicked.  She said she asked the boy to move and he wouldn’t.  She didn’t walk around him because she said she wasn’t supposed to get out of line, so she pinched him.  (That is exactly what she would have done to her brother.  I think all of the together time with Carter over the summer made her behavior a little skewed.)  Well the boy told on Abbie and she got in trouble.  I am sure Abbie immediately started crying to Mrs. Murphy.  And I am sure it was just one of the many things Mrs. Murphy dealt with that day.  Mrs. Murhpy didn’t even mark it in her behavior for the day in the folder I sign each night, so I can’t imagine it was that big of a deal.  But it definitely left an impression on Abbie.  She said she apologized three times to the little boy but that he told her he didn’t accept her apology.  (It turns out that he seems to be the little boy in class who gets in trouble a lot.)  I told her that she had done the best she could and to just let it go.  I told her that she is never allowed to touch or hurt another student.  I tried not to make too much of a fuss over it.  Obviously, I do not want her to ever hurt another child.  But she already felt bad and I did not want to keep her from telling me things like this in the future.

Abbie learned her lesson as she did not get a ticket for that day.  Each day they get a ticket if they behaved well.  Since she missed getting a ticket that day, she did not have enough tickets at the end of the week to pick something from the treasure chest.  Lesson learned.  She has not had any more problems like that since!