When Babies Bite

I picked Madeline up from daycare today to find that another baby had bitten her on the arm.  Poor Maddie Bear still has the red teeth marks and bruise to prove it!  Sad

When her teacher showed me the incident report, my first instinct as a Mumma Bear was to track down that razor-toothed baby and start whipping it around by its ankles while screeching, "We do NOT bite other people!! Biting is not for babies!!! ARRRRRGGGGGH!"

But I didn't for three main reasons:

One: They (wisely) do not disclose the name of the offender, so I didn't know which ankle biter was the culprit.  Two: I vaguely remember them telling us something at my Birthin' Babies class about how you should not whip a child around by his feet until the child is at least five.  And Three:  What are you going to do?  Life happens, and sometimes babies bite.

I'm sure this will not be the last time Madeline is bitten, pushed, or whacked by another toddler at school.  And as much as I want to seek revenge, I don't want to build up a bad reputation of swinging babies by their ankles.

In a few years, Madeline will be teased, or someone won't want to play with her at recess, or she won't get invited to a birthday party of a classmate.  A few years after that, she'll have to deal with the drama pre-teen girls can bring on.  Someday she'll have her heart broken.  

I wish I could put Madeline in a big, protective plastic bubble to help her avoid getting hurt, but sadly, that would probably only subject her to more biting(through the plastic of course), teasing, and heartbreak.

Hopefully, along the way I can teach Madeline to handle all the minefields of childhood well.  To stick up for herself. "You biting me, kid?!  What are you, some kind of psychopath?"

I'll keep telling her that she's the most wonderful and amazing person on the planet, and hopefully along the way she'll start to believe it.  (I also hope that next time she's not the one doing the biting.)

As for today, all I can do is kiss her boo-boo better and hope that the other baby learns that biting is not for babies.