Terrible Three's

I go to pick Ellie up today and Mrs. Debbie (the daycare director) opens the door for me and says "Hey, I've been meaning to talk to you." I instantly thought she was going to ask me about my new teaching job, etc... but no. She proceeded to tell me that Ellie was not behaving the way she needed to be. She would make faces at Ms. Amanda (her teacher) when Amanda would tell her to do something. She wouldn't stay in her seat and do her work. She won't go to sleep at nap time without one of the teachers sitting with her to get her to calm down and stay still. She has been in time out a lot lately because of all of this.

I was in tears from embarrassment when she was telling me this!!! I wanted to jerk Ellie up and spank her!

I walked outside to get Ellie and Amanda walked passed me. I apologized over and over again! She assured me that Ellie was great today and must have just been testing her last week (it was Ellie's first week of "school"). I apologized again and told her to please let me know if she acts up again.

So... I get Ellie to the car and the whole way home we talked about all the bad things that she has been doing and how those bad things cause her to lose privileges. I told her that if she acted like that for Ms. Abby (her dance teacher) then she would not ever go to dance again. Ellie did not like that comment. She told me, "Mommy, I won't do bad things again. I'll be nice."

It really does break my heart that she will not listen and do what she is suppose to do! I'm a teacher so you would think that she would be the best student ever!! I know I want her to be that way. Josh and I are doing everything we can think of to make her behave. We spank, we put her in time out, we take things away, we won't let her do things, we reward good behavior... nothing is working. I am having a really hard time with all of this tonight. It's just really upsetting.

I have to keep reminding myself that she is just 3. Three year olds have a hard time sitting still and listening. But I also have to tell myself that she will be in school in a few years and she has to be able to do all that. Not sure what to do, but I am open for suggestions.