Well, not so much “childcare” as “dollcare”, but in her mind, they’re the same thing.
We were relaxing in the living room for a few minutes before I needed to go start dinner. Scott and Jonah were watching Dirty Jobs on Discovery and Abby was playing with her dolls on the floor. Pretty soon, Abby brought some of her pajamas from her room and started putting them on her dolls…because Sally and Cinderelly were tired and needed to go to bed. But not her other dolls. They weren’t tired yet.
But her pajamas weren’t fitting on her dolls very well. So Abby turned to me and informed me that she really needed to buy some smaller pajamas for her dolls. She brought me her two dolls, cozily tucked into their bassenet, and asked if I would watch them so because she needed to go shopping. I agreed and gave the dolls a little pat on the head…to show her that I was paying attention. At that point, Abby gave me my instructions.
“Mama, be sure to take good care of them.”
“I will, baby.”
“And they need to be fed.”
“Ok, baby, I’ll give them something to eat.”
And off Abby trotted to go shopping in her closet.
About five minutes later…
“Abby…”
“Yes, Mama?”
“I need to go start dinner. Can you come back and take care of your dollies now?”
“Not quite Mama. I still need to buy three more things.”
“All right, sweetie, but try to hurry so I can start dinner. Ok?”
“Ok.”
Back to shopping.
A couple minutes later…
“Did you take good care of my dollies?”
“Yes I did baby.”
“Did you feed them.”
“Yes, honey. I did.”
“Oh, Mom, you were supposed to feed them dessert.”
“I did, baby. I gave them chocolate pudding.”
“Oh. But they need three desserts.”
“Are you sure, baby. That’s a lot of dessert.”
“Yes, Mama. They need three desserts.
“Ok. I’ll give them more dessert.”
“What did you give them for dinner?”
“Sandwiches and chips.”
“Oh. They don’t like sandwiches.”
“Well, sweetie, they ate up the sandwiches I gave them and they’re all full now.”
*silence*
(Skeptically) “Oh.”
