Tales From Preschool: What To Believe

(All the names in this post have been changed to protect the innocent (ha) children at M's school) 

As a parent you want to believe that your child is always telling the truth. My oldest has a very active imagination, and a ridiculously good memory. She can act out a scene from a show or movie after just watching it once. So I am not really sure if some of the things she says actually happened or if they are something she heard on television. Occasionally she will complain about aches and pains only for me to later find out it is something she heard in an episode of Doc McStuffins.

So sometimes when she tells me stories about her school day I am not sure what to believe, especially when she tells them differently to my husband later in the day.

A few weeks ago she got in the car at pick-up and was visibly upset. I asked her what was wrong and she said "my teacher yelled at me because I hit someone." My heart sank. She is hitting kids at school? So I asked her to tell me exactly what happened, and she went on to explain that she hit a girl at the end of the day and then her teacher came over and told her not to hit people. I told her that her teacher is right, and she should always keep her hands to herself. Later that evening my husband and I talked to her and tried to get more details about the occurrence. This time she told us she hit a boy. When I asked her to tell me who the boy was, she then said it wasn't a boy, it was her teacher that she hit.

I emailed her teacher to find out exactly what happened, and she told me that M didn't actually hit anyone maliciously. When they were lining up to go outside for pick-up, M happen to cut the line and while doing so nudged a boy already in line and her teacher told her that they don't do that, and she needed to get in the back of the line. Of course my child freaks out when anyone reprimands her, but why would she tell me that she hit someone when she didn't?

My favorite story was when she came home and told me that "Peter tried to marry me at school today! But Sally said there is no kissing at school." Cue the look of shock on my face. "Say that again?" She went on to tell me that Peter likes her, and he tried to kiss her at school, but kissing boys is yucky (other than daddy of course), and Sally yelled and said that we can't kiss at school. And so it begins...

But the latest story has me even more perplexed.

I went to take her ice packs out of her lunch box and noticed they weren't there. I asked M where they were and she looked at me with this guilty face and said, "we have to get new ones mom." So I of course asked her to explain what happened. " Jane took them. So we have to get new ones." Huh? I told her that no, we are not going to get new ones, she needs to ask Jane to give them back. I went on to explain that we don't let people touch or take our personal things, like ice packs. She then said to me, "I'm sorry Mama, but Jane said they are hers now." OMG.

Is this true? Did this girl really steal my kids ice packs? I thought Jane was a friend of M's? Is she really a bully? Am I dealing with bullies in preschool??? Did this even happen? Or did M just happen to leave them at school and she is now making up this elaborate cover story. Did she accidentally throw them out?

I was so tempted to email Jane's mother and find out if she had them (which of course I wouldn't be mad about) just because I am so curious if M is telling the truth or not! But I did the right thing and contacted her teacher about this today to try and get to the bottom of Ice Pack-gate.

I will report back with the findings when I hear from her teacher. Sorry to leave you with such a cliffhanger! It is like an episode of Homeland up in here!! :)