While bullying has been a well-known phenomenon in schools for several decades, the relevance of the concept of bullying in kindergarten is still disputed among researchers, professionals and parents. Reservations regarding the use of the concept of bullying in kindergarten has much to do with labelling young children as bullies-characterised by certain traits caused of individual aggression, intention to hurt and imbalance of power-and victims-characterised by low self-esteem and lack of different competencies. These explanations continue to represent dominant models of research about bullying and school intervention programmes (Camodeca,

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Research on educational activities generally focuses on the importance of positive emotions in the interaction between teachers and children. This article will focus on the challenging emotions that can arise when kindergarten staff interact with the children. The empirical material has been collected from a qualitative study of conflicts between children and between children and the staff in four Norwegian kindergartens. The focus of the article is limited to children's resistance in conflict situations with staff. The data material is based on the staff's written narratives about their practice and focus-group interviews where they discuss their emotions and actions in events where children demonstrate resistance. The authors discuss how challenging emotions arise in everyday life in kindergarten, reasons for these emotions and how they may affect the development of professional judgment.

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