Date Night and the Daycare Kid

This Saturday, B and I went out on a proper date. A full movie (We intended to see Saving Mr. Banks, but it was sold out and we ended up seeing Lone Survivor. It was a great movie, but decidedly not the sweet story about Mary Poppins that I set out to see) AND dinner. It was glorious, and we had a great time. We didn't worry about what Mia would eat, whether I had crayons in my purse or whether she would knock anything over on the table. It was great, but that's not exactly the point of my story.

Mia, at 2 and 1/2 is at a great age. Saturday morning, I told her that tonight, you are going to [B's coworker]'s house! She has four dogs! You are going to have so much fun. Mama and Papa are going to go, but we'll come back to get you later. She looked at me, processed what I said for just a second and replied: "1, 2, 3, 4 doggies!?" Great, the dogs will distract her enough for us to make a quick exit.

In the car, on our way to Coworker's house, I told her again. "Mia, you are going to [coworker]'s house. You are going to stay there and play with her and her doggies, and Mama and Papa will come get you later, OK?" She replies: "1, 2, 3, 4 doggies." Excellent.

Once we got there, Mia and I played with the dogs, B gave his coworker our little spiel. I reminded Mia to ask [coworker] if she needed to go potty. She looked at me and said: "You're going to work? But you'll come back and get me later." Yes, Mia. That explanation works for me! B and I left, no quick exits necessary. Mia excitedly told us to "Have fun! See you later! I play with the doggies!"

Mia and Popeye, doggie #4.

It's nice to know, that despite the guilt I routinely feel at dropping her every single day, for 8 hours a day at daycare, she feels completely secure. When she was really little, I feared that she would get confused, that she would think her daycare teacher was her parent, that the daycare center was her house. But, that has never been the case. Yes, she loves her daycare teachers, and is probably completely comfortable at the nice, bright, noisy daycare that she has been going to for nearly two years, but she knows. She knows we are her parents, her family, and that we may go away sometimes, and has no anxiety about us leaving her in the care of others. Needless to say, she had a great time with B's coworker, and when we came back to pick her up at 9pm, she was wide away and showed us everything she had done, and everything she had played with while we were away.