This is a sweet, rather than funny, anecdote. Yesterday Alex became concerned that I was thinking of putting Maya into child care - maybe he'd overheard the tail end of a conversation I'd been having with some one else and mis-interpreted it.
"Mum, why do the babies at day care don't matter?" he asked me. It took me a minute to figure out what he meant - sometimes he substitutes mind for matter (maybe confusing 'never mind' with 'it doesn't matter'? I find kids language development fascinating, but I digress...) - he meant why don't the babies at day care mind being left there (because Maya protests every time I leave the room). I explained that they were used to being there and that the teachers took care of them while their mums and dads were at work. "But I don't want you to do that to Maya, she's too little," he said, "she would cry too much. I'm a bigger boy so I like being at school and playing with my friends. Babies shouldn't leave their mums for that long. If we left her there, she'd cry so we'd have to go back and get her straight away."
I thought the empathy was really sweet. Perhaps he's been reading Steve Biddulph?
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