Pumpkin's rant of the day: 'Silly' Does Not Mean the Same as 'Naughty'

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I've been in the same nursery for most of the past two weeks. I don't like it anyway but this rant concerns a general thing which is now common to all (or, at least, most) childcare settings. That is the introduction of using the word 'silly' and not allowing the use of 'naughty'. Frankly, I find it ridiculous. If a child is being naughty, I see no reason not to tell them that they are being naughty. While I understand the issue with trying not to label a child as naughty - eg. you don't say 'you're being naughty' or 'you're a naughty boy/girl' because children will live up to that. I don't, however, see any reason not to say that a child's behaviour is naughty eg. 'hitting our friends is a naughty thing to do'. Even replacing the word 'naughty' with things like 'that's not kind' or 'that's not how we behave' would make some kind of sense but, instead, 'naughty' is now replaced with 'silly'. This makes no sense at all, considering that they mean two different things. If a child is naughty, they are doing something wrong. If a child is silly, they are doing something which isn't wrong and which is likely to be funny. Of course, if we're using the word 'silly' to mean 'naughty' in the nursery, this is going to cause problems when the words are used at home. If a child is told at home that they are naughty when they're naughty and silly when they're making people laugh, it's likely that they will continue thinking their naughty behaviour is funny because that's what silly means. It could also cause problems when a child is told at home that they are silly when they are being silly because they might be upset, thinking they're being naughty. Well, I think I've explained that OK. I think it's a daft thing anyway but I will tell you what makes even less sense: A child came to me today to tell me that another child had said the word 'naughty'. I asked why she'd said it. Nobody answered. The child who had come to me just told somebody else. The child who had said the word got told that 'we don't use that word at nursery' as if it was a swear word or something. Nothing was done or said about the reason for saying it. They all seemed more concerned about the fact that a child had said the word than in finding out what had happened to lead her to say it. I think I've said before, it's this kind of nambypamby attitude, and spoilt kids, and not being allowed to do anything that makes these bratty toddlers become spoilt teens. Oh yes, that reminds me. There was an incident at the nursery today. I tend to keep my mouth shut as I work through an agency, and I've got myself into trouble over speaking my mind. Anyway, one of the toddlers decided to have a very loud tantrum. You can't really do anything about tantrums because the child having them won't respond. Unfortunately, the poor young nursery nurse trying to deal with it didn't know this. The other two of us in the room just said to leave her. The reason she was having a tantrum? Because she'd got a tiny bit of gravy down her dress and demanded that we change her. When asked why she was having a tantrum, others in the room (some who were there, others who weren't there in the first place) said it was because she wanted to go to the freezer. What I wanted to say was 'she's having a tantrum because she's a spoilt little princess'. Someone else did say it though! I mostly worked in pre-school today so it wasn't too bad. I like it in there. And when I'm assertive with the children when it's necessary, I get backed up by the other nursery nurse in there. I'm also allowed to play properly and I'm spoken to/treated as equal as opposed to a slave and spoken to in the most obvious false niceness. Well, that's all from me for now. I need to put some clean trousers on, pick up a prescription from the doctor's before it closes, and get to my Mum's. Lots of study to do tomorrow as I've not been able to do much for a while. TTFN