My 2 year old and my 7 month old baby girls just started going to a babysitter while my husband and I are working. For the last week or two I have heard my 2 year old call her babysitter's husband daddy. And, he answers her without correcting her. I don't want to correct her in front of him for fear of hurting his feelings, but her daddy loves her very much and would be crushed if he knew she was calling someone else daddy. Is this normal? What do I need to tell her? What do I need to tell my babysitter's husband?!
dolphin mama2006-08-11T09:02:36Z
Favorite Answer
This is VERY normal! Your two-year-old is still learning how to classify things and people. This is called over-generalization, and it just means that she has figures that males, who are big like her daddy, are classified as daddies. Just as I bet she classifies all furry, four legged animals as dogs. She is learning to separate and organize things into categories... and sometimes she makes mistakes. My neice is into this stage right now, and has been calling me "Mommy". I usually respond with something like, "Remember, I'm Aunt Kate. What do you want, Ashley?" They are trying to get down all these rules of grammar, language and social status, and sometimes it just gets confused. Give her a little time to finish sorting out her classifications.... Pretty soon, she'll be calling him by his first name and understanding the relationships everyone has with one another. As for talking to your babysitter's husband- either just mention that you would like him to respond with (ie: "My name is Tom. What did you want?") or model for him when you are there ("His name is Tom, sweetie. What did you want to ask to him"). Either way, he should get the idea. If they have children of their own who have gone through this stage, he probably knows that children typically do this when they are learning, so he probably just responds knowing that she will grow out of it.
Definitely don't let your husband know. I would be crushed if I heard my son was calling someone else mommy. But at the same time since I am a full time working mother, and my son spends more time awake with his grandmother (my day care mom) then me. Which sucks. However, when talking to my son she calls herself Grammy. You might want to be sure that your sitter's husband isn't teling your daughter to call him Daddy. There are some weird people out there that get a power trip from odd things. Definitely talk to him about it or one day your husband will go to pick up the kids and it will happen right in front of him. Start putting a stop to it now before it gets too late!! Good luck...
so what if you hurt baby sitter's husband's feelings. Just be polite about it. The next time you catch her calling him Daddy all you do is pick her up and say "no no baby that's Mr. So and So. Daddy is waiting for us at home lets go see him" Or something to that affect. My oldest did that for a while. Anybody over 5 foot tall was Daddy. I was in the middle of a divorce and it scared a couple of dates away. It was cute really. Just do what i said and then the guy will get the picture that you don't want your kids to call anybody but their Daddy daddy.
It's really not that big of a deal. I have watched alot of children and two year olds really know who there dad's are. They sometimes just think all men are called dad. Do not say anything to the babysitters husband. He knows he is not the child's father. But it is very nice of him to have a nice connection with your daughter. Alot of men would care less. I am sure by the time your daughter is 2 1/2 she will never even remember calling him dad. It is just a phase all children have them. I watched a 2 year old and he called me mom. I tried to correct him as much as possible. Then I just decided he doesn't know any better. I my's as well stop wasting my time trying to correct him and just have fun with him. I am sure that is what the other man feels. Try not to worry about it that much. Don't rush to making it a bigger deal then it is.
This is something happen with most of the kids. My children did called other kid's dad daddy. My 26 months called all the daddy "dad" because he know it's the kid's dad.
But he know his daddy and go for comfort and loving to his dad whenever in need.
Don't worry about it. That will change as they get older. Kids know their parent before birth.
I'll be happy if my kid is happy and find comfort in other people when I'm not around. Take it easy on the kid. good luck