The background: My son is 2.5 and started attending preschool for just a few hours a week this year. He seems to enjoy it and is disappointed on the mornings when he doesn't have school. There are 7 kids in his class and two teachers, as well as 1-2 high school students that come in to help. That's a pretty great student:teacher ratio in my book! However, several of the other boys in his class seem to be pretty rough and grabbing, pushing, throwing, etc. seems to be a pretty regular occurrence. A couple of months ago, my son was pushed pretty hard by one of the other children (so the teacher says). I thanked them for letting me know, but told them I understand these things happen so it was okay since it was the first time. Yesterday, they said that "he got his feelings hurt" by some of the boys. They couldn't tell me who it was and it turns out it wasn't just that his feelings were hurt but that he was pushed again to the ground and was "covered head to toe in leaves".

Okay. So. I know pushing, wrestling, etc. is not uncommon behavior for kids this age. However, after coming home and thinking about it, I'm starting to raise my red flag. With a student-teacher ratio that small, is it that hard to keep an extra eye on the kids that you think might be a little rough just so you can intervene if necessary?

There is one child in particular (he happens to be the child who pushed my son the first time around) who is often pretty aggressive in behavior. I empathize with the parents because I know I would be stressed if my son was being so aggressive to others. On the other hand though, I see the mother at pick up all the time and she never mentioned anything about the incident - a simple "hey, is your son ok? I'm sorry to hear A was being a little aggressive with him. We're working on that." would have been nice.

Anyway, as much as I'm venting here, I wasn't actually too upset or worked up about it until I talked to my husband. His reaction surprised me because he was really upset that this happened again. We understand the kids are really young, so at this point he's just upset that the teachers aren't doing a better job monitoring the kids and keeping a careful eye on the aggressive one. My friend's daughter is in the class too and my friend says she shares daily stories of how the other boys throw, push, etc. and that's why she only wants to play with the other girl in the class and my son.

So, if you made it this far, props to you! And, if so, what do you think?? Are we expecting too much that we want to know our kids are safe while away from us, even if the kids showing this behavior are so young? Again, I'm not expecting perfect behavior from kids at this age but at what point do I say hey, we need to do something about this? I'm thinking as of now of talking to the teachers and asking them to keep a closer eye on the kids and that if this happens again we'll want to make a plan on what to do about it. What do you think?

::End epic, rambling post::