My daughter, the Koala

Gabrielle will be 9 months old on September 3rd and while 9 months isn't an event that most people would choose to celebrate, it is a big event in her daycare life for that is when she goes to the Koala room.

The daycare center that my wife and I send Gaby to is a very nice place, but for reasons that completely baffle me, they name each of the rooms that the children spend their days in. Infants are in the Panda room, after that they go to the Koala room. I'm not sure where they go after that but I'm sure it's a herbavour of some sort. Probably the 3-toed sloth, who knows?

One of the benefits of this particular daycare center is the fact that it's very close to where I work, so on the days that Gaby is spending there, I get to go have lunch with her. Lunch is a loose term, usually I sit there and watch her play with her toys and enjoy the smiles that she passes out, like the government gives out no bid contracts to Haliburton. (ie lots of them) (Gotta love a cheap political shot in a blog entry about my daughter.)

Today was a bit different though, as she is "visiting" the Koala room to mentally prepare her for the new surroundings that she'll be dealing with. I'm excited that she'll be moving onto the other room as the kids that are in there are doing things that I can't even imagine Gaby doing at this point. It's amazing how quickly you get used to the limits that your child has and then are stunned when they start to learn all of the skills that you take for granted. When she starts walking, I'm positive that I'll shit myself out of total shock.

It became pretty clear to me in the time that I spent in the Koala room that this room was going to impart a type of education on my daughter that I was going to have to undo. From the moment I walked in there, I heard songs about how great each of the kids was. That's not right. That's not what I got when I was growing up. It's sad to think that I'll have to try and un-do all of that positive reinforcement that she's going to get for 8 hours every day.

I want my daughter to be tough and hard-nosed, but it looks like I'm going to get a very secure and confident Koala instead.

I do hear that they can be mean if you try and take their Eucalyptus leaves away... so I guess that's where I'll start. Gotta nip this self-esteem thing they're starting in the bud.