Once Bitten...

...twice shy unless you get an ice pack.

I got a call on my cell phone the other afternoon while at work.

"Hi, this is Donna, Jed's teacher. I first want to let you know that Jed is fine but..."

Oh yeah, that's a way to make a mom feel comforted. My mind raced through him falling, tripping, cutting his head open, blacking an eye, as a mother's paranoid overactive mind will do after an opening statement like that.

"Jed was bitten on the arm today by another child. I'm sure you can guess who. (Jed was bitten on the finger last week by this same kid.) He is okay, It didn't break the skin. We put ice on it and he sat upstairs with a teacher until he was calmed down."

Ah a feeling a relief that it wasn't something bigger than this. Like something that would require stitches. I assured her that I understood that these things happen and that Jed had gone through this phase. I know this is going to sound bad but I was also relieved that it wasn't my child doing the biting. Yes, I hate that Jed has gotten bitten but at least we aren't having to deal with having to deal with the behavioral issue or the worry of him hurting other children.

Writing this down just made me realize that I have always felt this way about Jed. I never worried about him when leaving him in other people's care. I have always felt confident that he was going to be safe. But even when he was little, I was worried more about how he would treat those around him. Would he be good? Would he be colicky? Would he listen and behave?

But now I have to worry about him getting bit. At first it didn't bother me much. After all, they have had a lot of turnover in the staff in Jed's class due to various reasons. The biter is the youngest in the class and apparently this upheaval is affecting him to the point he is biting other kids (or at least mine) when something upsets him. Heck Jed went through a biting phase and bit his cousin really hard not too long ago. So I understand. And the teachers are figuring out a pattern to his biting and are really trying to address it.

However I found another accident report in his lunchbox yesterday. Another bite on the chest (minor) which happened because Jed was sitting on the little boy. Well maybe he brought that one on himself. I mean, why would you sit on kid that has bitten you in the past? Okay, I admit that Jed's logic skills are probably not to the point of figuring this out but still...

But this morning I started worrying just a little bit. I keep saying to myself "Please don't let him get bit today. Please let this be a bite free day." Of course I did tell him right before I left, not to sit on anyone.

When I ask Jed about being bit all he tells me is "Put ice on it" which is turning out to be the highlight of the day. The downfall of it all is that I think he is starting to lean more towards biting again. If this kid bites when he is unhappy then perhaps I can too...This is not something I want to deal with again but he did try to bite me yesterday. I hope this biting phase, both with the biter and Jed, will end soon.