My older daughter is now in pre-school, and based on her excitement whenever it's a school day, she really loves it. It's hard to be completely sure, though, because she has a strong tendency to be negative. Every time she comes home from school, I ask her how her day was and if she had fun. Here are a few of her typical responses.

“Yes, Dada, it was a fun day I think, but there was a girl with a jaguar hat and she wanted to throw something at my eye.”

“Yes, Dada, but the curly-haired girl did something mean today. She wanted to play a game called saying damn it! I knew she was being naughty when she said the things Mamas and Dadas say!” (Cue guilty cringing on my end...)

“Yes, Dada, pre-school is kind of a fun day I guess, but my friend wanted to play a mean game of taking my hat.”

I started to get worried that she was being bullied, but my wife knows exactly who the other kids are in each of these anecdotes, and she says they're my daughters' best friends. They're always playing together happily when she comes in to pick her up. So what is it in my little girl's temperament that leads her to focus so consistently on whatever is negative? It's like she's having fun playing for three hours, out of which maybe five minutes involved some tension with another kid- but that moment of tension is all she can think about.