In this chapter, preschool teachers’ understandings of competent children are explored. The chapter draws on data collected within a project aiming at improving quality in preschools through pedagogical documentation. The theoretical approach, social representations theory (SRT), addresses how groups of people construct, negotiate and maintain understandings of objects and phenomena important to the group. The data consists of focus group interviews and written documentation, involving approximately 50 preschool teachers in 18 preschool units. Key findings suggest that preschool teachers’ shared views on competent children may be organised into three categories based on an essential, relational or ideological perspective. All three perspectives of competent children involve risks of perception of some children’s shortcomings. A conclusion is that the notion of the competent child may deprive the passive and quiet child of their participatory rights and thereby challenge democracy in preschool.