Dear Guilty Parents

I have a letter from a reader that I would like to share with you and maybe together we can give them some help!

Dear Guilty Parent,

My daughter is 6 years old. She is in the first grade at a local private/Christian school. This is her first year at this school. She has always been a very sweet, well behaved, empathetic, happy little girl. Recently(the past 2 months) she has been getting in trouble at school. She was defiant and disrespectful during art, which is one of her favorite classes. She keeps calling me telling me she is sick when she is not. We took her to the doctor and he said she is fine. She left music crying yesterday. She loves music. She even bit THREE kids on the playground this week. She has even lied to me about something belonging to her that did not. I am not sure what is going on. The teachers are handling it great and are very nice and helpful. They want to encourage us and have not blamed her father or I for her actions. We still feel like we must have done something or are doing something to provoke this behavior. Nothing has changed in our lives. We haven't moved, or changed jobs, or started arguing or anything. She is currently our only child. Do you have any ideas or solutions?Please help!

Bad Parents in Bama

Dear Bad Parents,

I don't think you are bad at all. Have you talked to your little girl about her behavior? I don't mean the kind of talk that starts with, "Now you know you can't bite people..." I am talking about sitting down cuddling up with her and starting with something along the lines of, "It sounds like you had a really bad day today. How about if we just sit here awhile and you can tell me all about it." It sounds really corny to try but it can work.

To me when I hear about a child acting out in such a way that is totoally out of their character, I have to think that somewhere, something has happened. It's great that the teachers are being so helpful. Do you know if anyone has teased her or maybe there is a group of kids on the playground that could be rejecting her? Also because she is pretending to be sick tells me that she doesn't want to be at school for some reason. The acting out in class, crying and biting are all ways for her to try and be taken out of class.

If she won't open up to you maybe she will open up to a grandparent, a family friend, or favorite aunt. Sometimes even acting out her day at school with toys or dolls can work.

Readers, I am opening this up to you now. Leave a comment and let's see if we can help out these parents get to the bottom of what is troubling their little girl.

Also, keep those letters coming! We will begin featuring reader letters on Mondays so fill up that inbox. Send to guiltyparents@gmail.com