When Ken and I got engaged and my mother-in-law knew she could unleash the embarrassing stories without scaring me away, she told me that Ken was a biter. He doesn’t remember biting anyone – except maybe his brother – but according to the legend, he had to be threatened with humiliation before he stopped the biting. His mother warned that if he didn’t cease his biting habit before kindergarten, he would have to wear a sign that said, “I’m a biter.” I’m not sure any other kindergarteners would have been able to read it, but I guess Ken didn’t figure that out. He stopped and avoided the shameful label.
Today Nora came home with her second bruising bite in two weeks. I signed another incident report that detailed a child biting her while they were playing with the new kitchen set they got in their classroom this week. The daycare cannot, of course, tell me who the biter is, but Nora can. It was the same child that bit her last Monday.
Nora bit a girl last year about this time. They were both starting to really figure out the walking thing and they were caught in the corner behind the cribs in the infant room, so the incident report stated. I theorized, jokingly, at the time that Nora had truly bitten her because they were wearing the same dress that day and Nora’s inner fashionista was already emerging.Today, upon seeing the teeth marks for the second time, I had trouble finding anything to joke about.
I guess falling prey to the biter in the room is yet another risk of daycare. And maybe it’s a bit of sharp and slobbery karma coming back to visit Ken.
Toddler Summer 
That’s quite bothering to hear, the daycare should really do something since this matter has occurred twice already. As for dad, I guess the past has caught up with him and is now starting to haunt him.
Now I know what it feels like to be a member of David Sedaris’s family. I would never, ever, put a sign on my kindergarten age child. Actually, the occassions of biting were in pre-school, very few and only when driven to distraction and beyond all patience by pestering brothers or aggressive playmates. The story came from Ken so whatever I did do, which I must admit I don’t recall, must have made an impression.