New monkey palace

What it do folks?! Well, my baby started a new daycare today. I know this is UBER exciting to most’a ya’ll, but I am excited! Why you ask? Because the other daycare was comfortable for him, maybe a little too comfortable and he needed a change. He had been at the old daycare since he was 10 weeks old. He was the FAVORITE of the caregiver who monitors the “baby” room. Then when she became the leader of the 3-4 yr. old room , the person who switched places with her, I SWEAR she acted like she was a part of my family and shit (i.e. she exoected to be kept abreast of his portrait sittings for any occasion, birthday plans,etc.). That shit alone got on my nerves. And I didn’;t wanna be a bitch because after all MY CHILD was in her care for 10 hours a damn day! And she loved him, so I didn’t want that to change, because I was certain that he was being cared for. So, why did I decide to make the change, right?

He has learned a lot of good things. Such as, he knows his abc’s, the pledge of allegiance, many, many songs, can count to 30, and is more cognitively and verbally advanced of A LOT of the 2 year olds that I have seen. Now, it’s not just ME saying this (cause you know most momma’s are proud of their spawn), but I get comments from people I know AND STRANGERS in the street (cause he say’s “HI!!!” and talks to EVERYONE) on how he “speaks so well”. Now, that is said not in the white folks “he speaks so well” way, it ie meant in the “to be so young he speaks so well” way. I am always (don’t ask me why) surprised when people say this to me, because since he is my first, it’s just him being him. And I take it for granted since I do not have other kids around me to gauge him by. But I guess it’s true. ***beaming***

While he has learned some good things, he has also learned some bad ass habits from the damn caregivers, who are a bit ghetto and act a wee-bit childish at times themselves. The woman who took over the babies room (we’ll call her Popeye, because she looks as if her one eye is always slightly swollen and fucked up) decided that my baby was her FAAAAAVORITE. Now, the director of the daycare isn’t ghetto and is very nice. But the staff is composed of two young (and ghetto) girls,Popeye and Baby Machine (so named cause she got at LEAST 4 kids …..and apparently does not understand that if you make $7.00…… having MORE kids might not be a good look) and Beatrice, a grandmotherly type of woman, and during summers Sweet Thang, a young, quiet, college student who just has a real sweetness about her .

Now, the reason I liked this place is #1 my friend referred me to it and her two boys had learned at the center and the caregivers really do love the kids. The caregivers are also long time employees ( you know a lot of daycare centers have folks that bop in and out of working there) so tha went a long way with me as far as consistency of staff. But, I have noticed some irritating things that they do and my child has brought some of them bad-ass habits home, only to get the boon-doon placed on his ass. Example, recently, he came home and I was talking to him and when he was whacking this balloon rather hard, said "Stop hitting that balloon like that", he instantly replied to me "YOU stop hitting that balloon like that".


WTF? BACKTALK???? FROM A FRIGGIN 2 YEAR OLD???????? OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH NO. period dot.

I do not play that shit. So, the boon doon got layed on that ass. See….. I know that he "learned" that shit from daycare because hell, me nor his daddy taught him that crap!!! And in my opinion if you do NOT stop bad habits from seeding , taking root and sprouting into mighty oaks that are hard to chop down, it will be that much harder later. I like to work smart, not hard WHENEVER possible.

So, he also began this funky ass habit a bout 4-5 months ago of doing that spit/zerbert/raspberry noise with his mouth occasionally. Like I would tell him to do something or just on g.p. he would go “plllltttttttt” with his mouth. I tell him to stop and he does it again. Now, I know that sometimes kids get behavior from OTHER kids, but I don’t like it, and I do not tolerate it. So, when he does it (since he is NATURALLY stubborn and hardheaded…..yes, I can tell even at 2 years old……..) he won’t stop until I either pop him or grab him and squeeze an extremity. Now, ya’l might think that I am being hard on him, but he needs to learn lessons. There are consequences for actions. So, one day I go to the daycare and see Baby Machine “playing with him” and doing that “ppplllllt” noise with HER mouth like she was a damn 4-year old, almost in a “nah nah, nah nah nah” playful way. So, THAT’S where the dumb ass behavior comes from??? Oh, no. You need to leave.

Now, there are a couple of things that makes me think that the new place will be a little more “structured” and hopefully a little less childish. One, it is an offshoot of a church (the daycare is actually attached and conjoined with the church (separate entrance though), the caregivers are also more educated, better spoken and seemingly more mature. The environment is also in a “class-like” setting, with the ages groups neatly divided into 4 rooms. The environment is also more updated than the other center. This center has computers, newer (more ergonomically safe….at least I think so) toys and jungle jim type of toys. So, all in all I feel good about the switch.

So, we get there this morning (me & my husband went) and this boy was OFF.DA.CHAIN. from the git. I am attributing this to his “excitement” since we had been telling him that he was going to a new school today. Today is the “test” day , where he gets to come to the new center for free for a day to make sure he will acclimate o.k. So, we are getting ready to leave and he (being the child of my husband that he is ) is NOT.THINKING.ABOUT.MOMMY.OR.DADDY. He’s running, playing, jumping, grabbing the ball out of the corner……. All while the OTHER kids (though most were older that were there at that time) were sitting NICE.AND.CALMLY eating their breakfast. I was like “oh shit, they are gonna think does this child have NO home training?????” Lemme splain…….. Because the old center was in a small –ass house that was converted to a daycare, there wasn’t much room to run, and since he had been there since 10 weeks, he literally was let go from room to room and since both of the main teachers loved him, they accommodated his roaming and him having his freedom. I don’t think this place will be as accommodating with him wanting to do what he wants to do, how and when he wants to do it. But that is a GOOD THING!!! Don’t get me wrong. I KNOW them people let him get away with murder, cause he’s cute and smart. But in my mind cute and smart don’t mean shit. You have to have some self control. ( I know, I know….he JUST turned 2………) But see…this goes back to those bad ass habits that he has developed , coupled with his short attention span and now I can feel it in my BONES that he is going to have some resistance to being made to be a bit more confined. So, as we are getting ready to leave we say goodbye and he is barely even paying us any attention, because he is wild-monkey all over the room, so we scoot on out.

I am the one who picks him up in the evening, so we will see what they say he tore the hell up when I get there.

Will keep ya’ll posted on what happens…….