The incident of the child at the daycare

Yesterday when I picked up Reilly from daycare, I asked Jenya the usual question: “How was her day?” Since Reilly had been sick the last several days, this was more than the typical cursory question—I really wanted to know. How was her eating? Did she nap? Was she cranky? Did you have to use her pacifier much? Jenya easily answered all the questions and I was happy to hear that Reilly had a good day and is officially on the mend.

At that point, Joyce came by and mentioned that she wanted me to review and sign an incident report. When I asked why, she mentioned that one of the other children had bitten Reilly on the cheek. I could tell that Joyce and Jenya both felt really bad about it, and I empathized with their position. I consider myself a pretty easy-going parent, but I imagine that there are other mothers and fathers who wouldn’t react as well to news of their child being bitten.

I reviewed the incident report and signed at the bottom. The report essentially listed what happened, how it happened, and how to avoid such an incident again in the future. I chuckled when I read the last line. I mean, these things are unavoidable, for the most part. Children move so quickly that most of their accidents are unavoidable. There have been times that I am playing with Reilly, with her less than a foot away from me—with my eyes right on her—and she has fallen down and hurt herself.

I was surprised to be on the signing side of the incident report anyway. Reilly recently went through a biting stage in which she would chomp on Shawn and me whenever she got very excited—much like a puppy would. I thought for sure I’d come into daycare one afternoon and have the incident report waiting for me, detailing Reilly’s crime. So, I didn’t hold a grudge on the other child for biting my little baby. Reilly is so cute, it was probably a crime of passion anyway, right?

When I picked up Reilly from her crib, the mark confirmed my guess: It looked a little like a kiss, one crescent of red on the top of her cheek, and an opposing crescent on the bottom.