This thread made me feel so much better. We had our son in daycare three days a week from just before he turned 2 until he was about 2 1/2. He's an only child and he seemed lonely so we thought it would help him. We told them going in that he was very bright and unusually heavy and strong. I don't think they believed us.
Our son was clearly depressed and was going backward with his potty training. He liked the kids, but something was wrong and we couldn't figure out what. Finally after an incident where he was dropped and the school blamed him for being dropped we took him out.
A few weeks later he started talking about it. He has said the teachers were too rough with the kids and some of the parents were also mean to the kids. He said the teachers were grabbing him and some parents talked about hitting their kids in front of him. He's now 3. Whenever we drive past the school he says he misses his friends but does not want to go back.
No one I know in real life has had any negative experiences with a preschool. It's sad that it happens sometimes, but it's relieving to know it wasn't just us.
