Mia's Baby Renaming Project

I don’t know what it is about kids going to daycare that brings on the whole gender confusion issue…I remember it happening with Toby; it has happened again with Mia.

Yesterday morning we had an unexpected sleep in.  It wasn't the blue moon impossible scenario of BOTH kids sleeping past 7am on the EXACT SAME MORNING.  (I am a staunch believer that that does NOT happen unless your kids are drugged or you have a miraculous parental horseshoe up your bum.) No, it wasn’t a sleep in because of our kids; it was s sleep in INSPITE of our kids.  Because somehow, with the first few weeks of school under our belts, we parents were just SOOOO tired that, no matter how hard Mia screamed, we just didn’t hear her until 7:30.

As you can imagine with Mia, she had taken her 30 min of solitary abandonment to reorganize her crib.  And by the time we finally realized our mistake and RUSHED in to get her, she smiled up at us quite contentedly,  proudly announcing that she had officially renamed all of her babies.  We both took our turns listening attentively and getting reacquainted.

As you may recall, Mia’s baby naming skills, up to this point, have been less than impressive.  IN fact, I would venture to call them predictable, banal and generally erroneous.  Today, her new names were actually no longer predictable or banal, but I hate to say – still (possibly) erroneous?  The verdict is still out on that one…

I can’t remember what big baby was renamed but little baby (the big one that smells like baby powder and is wearing a dainty pink sleeper) is now called “William”

Hmm…I said after an hour of insistence and consistency on Mia’s part,
“Do you know someone named William at daycare, Mia?”

“Oh, yes, “ she said proudly, “There’s a girl named William at Daycare.”

That was, in no doubt, true.  I also learned some other facts about William. “She” is in Erin’s group, is older than Mia, has long hair and often sits beside Mia at circle time.  William likes to play on the plasma cars and wears running shoes.  You know – all of the pertinent details.

Unraveling the mystery of Mia’s daycare life takes me back to one of the pillars of Socratic thinking: wisdom is knowing how little we know.  (I KNEW that CLS 225 class at Queens would eventually come in handy!!) Although we now know a child named “William” exists at daycare it brings up a whole host of questions: who IS this William child?  Is she really female with really cool parents who are pushing the whole “naming your girl a traditionally male name makes her kick butt” boundaries or is Mia just really bad at distinguishing boys from girls?  Instead of teaching her colours and numbers should we instead have spent more time focusing on gender differentiation strategies?  And if this is the case HOW do we correct this innate flaw without resorting to basic gender stereotypes?

I am pleased to say that this whole experience has taught me that Mia has a great sense of tenacity.  The more we ask, the stronger her conviction about little baby’s name change to William.  And I have to say- it has actually grown on me…maybe one day I will actually have a granddaughter named William.  If she’s anything like her boundary-pushing-stereotype-shredding-Mama she’s go