Monday, September 28, 2009

Prison Break Preschool Edition

We had an incident yesterday where my little monkey decided to wander off without telling anyone. He was found just outside of the building and all is well that ends well, but I am still recovering from the feeling of having my child vanish. He's bee cuddled alot yesterday and today by mommy. To lighten the mood, I've decided to finally tell y'all about that time he escaped from daycare..

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I may or may not have mentioned before that my little boy is the stereotypical boy. Fully obsessed with trucks, cars, dirt and all things bugs. He must have his McQueen at all times. From the toilet to his bed, a car or truck must be in his hands. At daycare, if there is no truck out when he arrives, he will hound and hound the caregivers until they bring out a truck or car.

One sunny morning this past summer we walked into the yard and there were no trucks, cars, ride-ons or bikes in the play-yard, ditto inside the center. I asked the Center Supervisor what was up with the lack of typical boy centered toys and she responded that she would like my monkey and a couple other stereotypical boys to expand their play, as such she wasn't going to put out any trucks, cars, ride-ons or bikes. "Okay, good luck with that" was my doubtful response. I dropped off monkey and went to the lab

I ended my experiments early that day and instead of enjoying some quiet time to myself, I decided to pick my little monkey up early. I drove over to the daycare, parked the car and walked upto the center. I was a bit confused as it was sunny, definitely past snack time yet the playyard was empty. This is strange I thought to myself, and proceeded to walk into a center that was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. As soon as I was seen, a very frazzled and upset caregiver looked at me and said "I need to talk to you now in the office now". WTF! I thought to myself as I quickly started looking for monkey. All the other caregivers quickly jumped up to say "he's here eating snack, he's OK". Okay, what is going on? I walked into the office and found out:


My child had escaped. He broke out of the daycare.

He had been casing the fences all morning, eyeing the trucks in the other play yard. He had is eye on the prize and all he had to do was figure out how to get that truck. He watched the care givers to figure out their habits, found the smallest gap in the fence - between the building and the end of the fence. Now he just had to wait for the perfect time. It was after nap, when everyone was busy with getting the kids peed and fed. He snuck out of the center into the yard, quickly to the fence before anyone saw him. Squeezed himself between the fence and the building, yeah "I'm in" he thought as he ran to the truck in the other play yard!

Except the caregiver for the other center was watching the whole time and busted his delinquent ass. She brought him back over to his center, freaking everyone out that he had gotten out, hence the quietness. All the children were lectured on the importance of telling someone before they went outside.

Normally I would be quite upset at the situation, but after talking to the caregiver it was very clear that this was not something that had happened before on her watch, she was very upset and was not taking the situation lightly,

This next morning we arrived to the center to find wind chimes on all the doors. You have to love it when your child instigates new policies.

Oh and I asked the Center Supervisor if she was happy about the new ways monkey found to play. She responded that all the trucks, cars, ride-ons and bikes that the center owned would be put out for monkey.

11 comments:

MomPhDstudent said...

:-) My son would have done the same thing if his Playgrp came up with a similar idea to "expand his play areas.

Except that he may have got on to a real truck or car as there were no play yards near by.

Maggie May said...

Your life is fascinating to me. So different than mine, still with important similarities. Hello!

chall said...

happy the other daycare saw him... and hopefully he will understand that you can't leave. It is a dangerous world outside....but you need that car :)

chall said...

and I can totally understand that my use of "you" is confusing. Funny, in Swedish it all sounds right but not in English I guess.

Cath@VWXYNot? said...

Those few seconds before you knew he was safe must have been terrifying... but it's a hell of a story!

Alyssa said...

Ha! Monkey clearly knows how to get what he wants!

Field Notes said...

Fun story ~ what a smart little monkey you have!

ER Doc said...

Sorry I'm late with this, but I haven't been reading you regularly... My daughter, (now grown,) was the escape artist for us. The worst time was shortly after we'd moved to a new town, when she was a little over 2. Her babysitter was a mother with two daughters about the same age, who lived about 400 yard down the street (no cross streets.) One day, my daughter just vanished from their house. Since the next street over was on a large river, the sitter assumed the worst, of course. After searching around the river, she happened to drive past our house, and there was my daughter, sitting on the front steps in tears. She'd walked home without difficulty, but was upset that she couldn't get in the door.
I'm not sure how much my daughter actually had to do with it, but, a few months later, that mother left her husband and daughters to run off with another man.

The bean-mom said...

Wind chimes!!! Love it! (the way that Monkey single-handedly instigated center-wide policy changes, not the way he freaked everyone out) Oh, and he got his trucks back, too!

Clearly, that is one cunning and dangerous kid... =)

Tina said...

Oh my; what a smart little monkey he is! I can't imagine your worry this time, just your relief that he was found again.

ScientistMother said...

momphd - so nice to know my child isn't the only one that does these sorts of things!

Maggie - welcome to the blog!

Chall - unfortunately he doesn't understand that he can't just leave which makes life very very hard! Yes he doesn't need that car :0

Cath - the story cracks me up everytime, he is a terror!

Alyssa - yes he does, totally stubborn and independent too!

Field Notes - welcome to the blog! yes he is smart, which makes life very very interesting!

ER Doc - welcome to the blog! Having a houdini for a child is challenging! Glad to know you survived it!

BeanMom- aren't the wind-chimes the best! i was pretty impressed with the center policy change too!

Tina - hehe, yep he's a smart one when he wants to be!