"Yeah, I mean... at least they let us do somethin'. I hate given 'em any credit but they let us do somethin' for 'em. My owners when I was a youngun' wouldn'ta put up with none of it. Never had much of a chance to get attached to no one."

The girls that had kind of adopted him would never have had that chance in his lifestyle. It was bad enough. But Yondu never got attached to nobody for more than a week as a kid, and it weaned him off it fast.

At least they can be kind to the kids here without someone stopping them or splitting them up. On one hand, he hates getting attached. On the other, he doesn't want them feeling like he did, or even like Peter did when Yondu had to maintain an iron fist in front of his crew.