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Unregistered 02:53 PM 01-11-2018
I have a 4 year old who seems to me to play strangely. I usually notice it when he is playing by himself. A few examples: he is playing with dinosaurs and has one say to the other "Hey, you are dumb! Haha!" Another time he was playing with barbies and has one say to the other, "I'm going to cut you!" One more example, is when he was playing with cars and had them crash saying "I killed you." I know kids do a lot of imaginary play and sometimes say some interesting things, but he says a lot of aggressive things. I have never heard other kids talk like this while playing. Is this normal?
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Homebody 03:04 PM 01-11-2018
I had a 22 month old that would take certain toys, items, or sticks when we were outside and pretend that he was shooting people. He was around older cousins a lot, so I thought he was either being influenced by them or was watching inappropriate TV shows at home. His parents were really young and a little immature too. Could be yours is being influenced by someone or TV too.
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Josiegirl 03:08 PM 01-11-2018
Normal? Not really. I wouldn't be surprised to hear those types of things though. Kids(dare I say especially boys) tend to play rough and tough, crash 'em bash 'em type play. The one I don't think I've ever heard though is 'I'm going to cut you'. My current group can do some rough stuff but TBH I've never heard them say anything like that.
Maybe he watches violent tv or has older siblings that expose him to stuff like that, or maybe home life is a bit tough.
I'd try to turn his play around to more acceptable words though because pretty soon all the dcks will be picking up the aggressive tone.
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Unregistered 03:26 PM 01-11-2018
He is the youngest of three kids and I know he watches shows that are more geared towards the older siblings ages. (10 and 8) I don't know though if he watches violent shows. His home life seems pretty normal. I had his older siblings in care until they reached school age and neither of them acted like this while they were here.
I do redirect him anytime he starts talking like that and tell him it is not appropriate to talk like that at my house. I do have to agree that boys tend to play more aggressively, but this seemed over the top to me.
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hwichlaz 06:54 PM 01-11-2018
I'd be willing to bet the 10-year-old is playing a video game at home and the 4yo is mimicking the dialogue. It's not unusual at all, just continue to correct.
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DaveA 03:04 AM 01-12-2018
Originally Posted by hwichlaz:
I'd be willing to bet the 10-year-old is playing a video game at home and the 4yo is mimicking the dialogue. It's not unusual at all, just continue to correct.
That was my guess also. Like she said- correct, redirect, and repeat.
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MissAnn 04:37 AM 01-12-2018
I had a kid like that. He would talk about killing, shooting, and beating up all the time. I outlawed "cop" games here because he was obsessed and became too violent in actions and talk. He was 4 and watched NCIS and Cops with his parents. One day he made a big structure with legos. I was impressed and thought he was making improvements because he wasn't using his violent talk. Then he put people in his structure....then said....Hey Sammy, let's blow this thing up! His mom and dad were not on board with my suggestion of not having him watch violent shows. I was on the verge of terming but luckily the mom got angry about me talking some time off and termed herself!
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tenderhearts 07:54 AM 01-12-2018
I've had boys do and say things like this,(not I'm going to cut you) it is usually like others have said they have older siblings or are around older kids a lot. I redirect and tell them that is not ok to play that way, they are not allowed to play "walking dead(I can't even believe kids know what that is), killing, shooting. I had a 3 yr old say wtf a couple weeks ago, I couldn't even believe what he said and I quickly said um what did you say? I thought maybe I misheard him and another boy casually repeated what he said like it was no big deal, I'm sure he had no idea. I do know this boy hears it from his father as he has admitted numerous times he cusses like a sailor and is trying to stop. Thankfully no one else has said it again.
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Tigerlilly 08:01 AM 01-12-2018
Honestly I would bring it up with his parents. This is absolutely a product of the home environment and his parents should be made aware. If they take it personally and take and pull him, oh well. Shame on them. I would be mortified if that type of language rubbed off on other children in the daycare.
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