T loves to look at pictures. We start with recent pictures, then pictures of Ethiopia, then move on to pictures of me from before we were a family. I think she enjoys seeing me with different hairstyles, to be honest 
. Anyway, today she was looking at pictures of me from a few years ago. She picked up one photo, pointed to a man standing next to me, and said, “Daddy?”
“Um, no, T, no daddy. Only mommy.” Brilliant comeback, Liz. So eloquent.
Later this afternoon, while at the grocery store, it was point, point point. “Daddy? Daddy? Daddy?”
She can barely talk, and yet she says the D-word clear as a bell.
The guilt, oh my God. I wasn’t expecting this yet.
I just joined Facebook! Yes, I am the last person on earth to join, but that’s how I roll, so…Please be my friend! I’m Liz S*i*r*o*i*s – see you there!
February 20, 2012 at 6:13 am
Ooooh yeah. We’ve had a few rounds of the ‘daddy daddy’ thing. But it was not as bad as I expected. For Yosi, it was more about confirming information. I just kept cheerfully repeating that all families are different, some have daddies and some do not, our family is one son and one mommy. We also spend a lot of time with another single mom and son who is my son’s age. Todd Parr’s Family Book is good, very simple. I try to point out different family structures we encounter to make it clear there is no one ‘normal’ family model. I think this one will come around over and over as their understanding gets more sophisticated. At one point I started to freak out because Yosi was calling an uncle ‘daddy’, then I realized I was the one putting all the baggage into that. He just copied what he heard his cousins call his uncle. Good luck, it can be headwrecking!
February 26, 2012 at 11:36 pm
My guy loves to call people daddy. he has no idea what one is… but he’ll repeat the word over and over. arg. i used to do like barbaloot above, but then he just played it for attention. I’m off fb for lent but if you email me i’ll give you my fb name to friend.
March 4, 2012 at 8:46 pm
Hi Shannon,
Tadu has stopped (temporarily?) using the d-word luckily! Of course, we did have to put our cat down this week, so that’s a whole different kind of issue that I wasn’t expecting.
I’d love to be facebook friends! Please send me your name whenever you get a chance and I’ll friend request you! I hope that you are having a good evening!
Best, Liz