How much do you intervene?

[KellyP]

Kelly P...How do your daycare children understand that it is okay to rough house, which is physical but they aren't ever allowed to physically touch anyone else??? Seems like it's mixed messages there to a group of children who are at an age where they would easily find it confusing to differentiate between when it is appropriate and when it isn't. I understand what you are saying that if they are in a situation where they have to share or aren't getting their own way then it isn't appropriate to resort to physical contact such as pushing, hitting etc but age 3 and under is such a funny age that in my experience this would be something that would commonly be misunderstood.

I'm sorry, I should have been clearer about how I manage that....
I allow rough housing for the older kids. (usually the 4/5 and up crowd) AFTER they understand the difference between playing and just being mean.

The couple boys I have now are 4.7 yrs old and 5.2 years old and both have been with me a while and are great friends. I allow them to wrestle and rough house with each other in FUN and when BOTH are willing participants. I don't allow a free for all kind of rough housing.

Boy, this is hard to explain in print and without getting lengthy....

It just works good so far with the group I have. No one is mean and they seem to rough house nicely...LOL! Is that even possible... I do try and give the kids a bit of lea-way because I am NOT a school but a family child care provider so I feel I can be a bit individualized with the rules...and so far with this current group, it works nicely.

I've had other groups where I couldn't allow the kids to even be within arms reach of each other without someone thinking someone else was being mean or intrusive....

I hope that makes more sense...