How would you respond if your 2-year-old daughter regularly received calls from Haiti?
In redditor Hotdogdance’s case, she expressed thankfulness for the distraction that such calls provided and the joy they brought to her child. She detailed her situation to r/AskReddit in a Nov. 30 post titled “Reddit, almost every day some random Haitian couple calls and talks to my two year old giving me time to clean the house, etc. What weirdly awesome random little things are you thankful for?”
Soon after moving into a new house, a non-English-speaking couple called looking for “Mademoiselle Pierre” but instead reached Hotdogdance’s 2-year-old daughter.
“She reacted to their voice, and started ‘talking’ back babbling, laughing and mimicking them. I went in the other room and came back 10 minutes later and they were still on the phone talking to her,” Hotdogdance wrote.
On future calls, Hotdogdance tried to explain, as best she could, that the couple had the wrong number. Nevertheless, they continued to call, seemingly enamored with her 2-year-old daughter.
“I don’t know who they are, if they are crazy, lonely, old, or really just don’t understand that we have no clue who they are. They could be swearing or doing anything I guess, but they really seem harmless. I have become very thankful for the time they spend talking to my daughter. She even seems to look forward to it too and calls them her ‘pals.’”
“TL;DR My daughter has Haitian Phone Babysitters.”
Hotdogdance posted a video proving the daily activity, and it’s been seen more than 40,000 times since.
Within hours, the post was bursting with activity and received over 7,200 upvotes. While moved by the simplicity of the situation, many warned Hotdogdance to be wary of who might be on the other line.
“Please be wary of the situation. I can’t say for sure, but my Spidey sense it tingling,” warned user autobots, who went on to outline a few possibilities.
Hotdogdance assured her fellow redditors that her daughter was perfectly safe.
“I am very protective of her, if i thought they were being creepy, seeking info or doing anything that affected her it would stop right away,” she stated. “She still can’t count past 10 so I’m not worried about her giving out any Important info yet.”
Other redditors played detective, using the video Hotdogdance posted to make out what the callers were trying to communicate.
“Towards the beginning, the woman is saying over and over ‘I’ll call you later.’(M’ap rele-ou pi ta – forgive me, my writing in Kreyol is pretty horrible). Towards the middle, before she makes those weird noises, she says ‘I’m about to cry’ (M’ap gen ten criye, wi). So the weird noise is her pretending to cry.”
As the thread continued to spiral, Hotdogdance asked her fellow redditors what “weirdly awesome little things” for which they are thankful.
“There is this sassy older lady who comes into my work. She always has stylish, unique, color-coordinated outfits. She’s a lot of fun to talk to and gives me hope that I, too, will be awesome when I’m old. There are a lot of fun customers in my work, actually, and they make being ‘just a cashier’ quite fun :)”
“I am thankful for my very weird, random two year old daughter. I paused earlier as I was making Mickey pancakes for dinner, while she was watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and playing with her Mickey dolls that she was putting her Hello Kitty underwear on to help them potty. . . to realize how rad she is.”
“because i was poor and lonely growing up [ well i still am :(…] i never touched a drug, alcohol, or coffee. idk if i ever will but i at least can say i have not touched any of those so far in my life.”
“I’m thankful for a little girl that my wife and I talk to every evening on the phone. We can’t really understand what she is saying, but she brings us such joy!”
Redditors: protectors, detectives, storytellers, and comedians, sometimes all in one thread..
Photo via Pat Pilon/Flickr