The day my 7 year old schooled me at the Aquarium

The aquarium is one of my favourite parts of the zoo. At home I can kill a beta fish in two days flat, so I try to soak up as much of that calming sea life atmosphere at the glowing fish tanks as possible.

Last weekend at The Toronto Zoo, my oldest and I were checking out the seahorses when I mentioned that these were the pregnant seahorses we were looking at.

“oohhhh….” he said amazed. “These are the Daddy seahorses!”

Thinking he must not understand the word pregnant, I explain.

“See their big bellies? There are babies in there! These are the Mommies”

“No” he replies “These are the Daddies!”

I give him a sideways glance, “Buddy, babies come from Mommies right?”

“Nope, not this time. These are Daddies” he responds confidently

Hmmm…….I start to read the sign above the sea horse tank for any chance he could be right, surely it would mention this.

“Buddy, I don’t think so, the sign doesn’t say their Daddies” I break it to him.

Completely unwavered, he tells me with such certainty, they are. These sea horses were the Daddies. fact.

For a kid who crumbles if he struggles with one letter on a spelling test, he was pretty confident he was right. I look around and spot another sign beside the tank and spot it!

MR. MOM

Yes, indeed! Female seahorses place their eggs into the male seahorses pouch and the Daddies fertilize and carry the babies throughout the pregnancy. The only species ever, where the male carries their offspring.

huh! how about that! The 7 year old was right!

With no recollection of where he had picked up the information, he tells me he didn’t learn it, he just knew it! lol

And there it is, it only took a few short years for the kids to outsmart their mom!