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Owl’s Daycare Lady is on vacation and I’ve been patching together care for him piece by piece. Thursday and Friday of this week were courtesy of PH’s corporate daycare downtown. As part of his benefits he gets 2 free days a year.
I was reluctant to send him to one of these massive centres because studies have shown that kids in these environments have high cortisol (the stress hormone) levels. No matter how well trained and caring the staff, it’s just not the safety of home. That’s why I wanted a small home daycare instead.
But we’re low on options (next week The Farm Fairy is taking him one day and the other three days I have hired the newest helper at Owl’s Daycare, who I slightly distrust because she wears impractical shoes and spells “sure” “shore”). So on Thursday and Friday PH took Owl downtown and I biked to work.
I was worried that the change of routine, and being dumped all day at a big centre filled with complete strangers might stress Owl out.
PH was like “have you met our child?” and he was right – we know because they have a parents’ webcam.
PH sent me running commentaries on all of Owl’s doings:
Food time! They’re sitting at the tables and red smocks are being put on them all. It’s really cutely ridiculous. Owl’s seat is mostly out of shot so it’s hard to see how he’s doing. However we may safely assume the standard OMNOMNOM.
These children are good eaters. Not one of them has stood up yet. Owl is in tough competition.
And just as I say that, the first one falls. Tension mounts.
Another two fall, and the gustatory battle truly begins.
The last standing warriors have been grouped together at one table for the final eat off.
Owl is down! He finishes outside of the medals in fourth place! What a stunning turn of events!
So clearly Owl had a good time, and I was silly to worry.
But you never know what can happen when you leave your child with strangers. Look at this poor kid, who got his face scrubbed with a Magic Eraser or something.
But Owl did fine. His face is not burned by cleaning chemicals, and he does not appear to be in the least traumatized.
But he DID come home yesterday repeating something that sounded an awful lot like a swear word.
Tell me, what does it sound like he’s saying to YOU?
Watch me watch me watch me….? What are you hearing?!
It sounds like “f—” me!
It definitely sounds like “f— me”. My husband thinks he’s saying “why me, why me?”
“Watch me, watch me, watch me!” What else does a kid say when competing for the adult’s attention with 8, 10, 12 others? WATCH MEEEEEEEE!
I heard ‘watch me’ too.
Yup, I heard “watch me” too.
Get your mind out of the gutter, Carol.
I’m glad you guys don’t think he picked up swearing at daycare, but I wish I could hear what you hear – he is starting the first word with an eff sound! How does that work out to “watch”?
You need to either get new ears or a new video camera, because the owl is clearly saying WATCH ME…either that or some therapy to esplain why you think your child is already a rageful teenager saying “eff-me”
He said it a bunch more times today. If you guys say it’s “watch me”, I’ll trust your toddler experience. But he is definitely pronouncing it with an F as the starting sound. “Fut me!”
I just listened to it again *trying* to hear what you hear – nope, I’m still hearing “watch me, watch me, watch meeeeeeee!!!”
Hey look, Pixie pronounces “flower” thusly – fow-da. Which actually sounds exactly like how she pronounces “farted” – a word she picked up from Louis & I’m trying to replace with the more socially-acceptable “tooted”.
I only know it’s “flower” because she says it while pointing at flowers – and even then sometimes I’m unsure. Toddler-speak is a funny thing.
it’s true. He’s said it a bunch more times at home and it’s definitely an f sound that he’s starting it with. A couple of times he drew it right out: “fffffffffffat me!” but maybe he’s just substituting sounds? I mean, he calls socks yocks.
I heard f*ck me. And I apologize for laughing. Owl is getting so big!
Woah – sounds like watch me here as well. In all honesty when they are so young – many words sound a lot like other things…
Tamara
(Should it be “PH took Owl downtown” at the end of the third paragraph?)
Oops! Thanks!
I kicked myself after posting that comment, realising I maybe should’ve phrased it in a less “look world, it’s exactly THERE” and more “you might want to double-check the text” as who knows how long the comment would be there before you could change the post? :/
It would have taken me forever to find it otherwise. No worries!