minoanmiss: Minoan youth I drew long ago. (Minoan Youth)
minoanmiss ([personal profile] minoanmiss) wrote in [community profile] agonyaunt2020-02-17 10:49 am

Dear Care & Feeding: Private Parts Parlance Parade

I’m the father of a pair of 5-year-old twin boys, “Geoff” and “Paul.” The boys are funny and sharp and are almost always a delight but lately something, uh, delicate has come up. Their mom and I had a talk with them about the differences between girls and boys bodies and both were very attentive and interested. Maybe too interested?

Because now the two of them have begun marching around the house trumpeting “PENIS” and “PAGINA” at full volume at all hours, sometimes while waving their toy construction flags like they’re in a Thanksgiving parade. I’m not going to lie: It’s pretty adorable and funny (don’t tell them I said that).

We’ve explained to them that those are words usually reserved for private conversations, but that has only seemed to make them louder and more animated. I imagine this will pass someday, but I don’t want them to be performing their genitalia cheer at school or church or whatever. Any advice on how to tamp this down without making it seem like we are shaming them over perfectly normal human anatomy?

—Parade Pooper


Dear Parade Pooper,

I’m so happy. So happy. Thank you for this gift. You are a fortunate parent. This is why we have children, especially since we can no longer guarantee they will look after us in our old age.

My friend, you are going to have to stop reacting. Picture infectious diseases or bog bodies or whatever is a reliable source of sobriety in your home. Bite the inside of your mouth. Leave the room, pretending you need to use the bathroom, and play the theme to Brian’s Song on your phone.

More importantly, as with the farting child of recent weeks, you have to create a division between your home and the world of other humans. In your home, the parade of shrieking genitalia names may continue until they tire of it. If it happens in public, everyone gets back in the car and we go home. It’s a pain in your ass to abandon a grocery cart midstore, but you usually only have to do it once or twice.

If my personal parenting philosophy could be summed up in two main points, they would be the following:

You should try to have as much fun with this as possible while they’re with you, because you have no guarantee they will be grateful later. We live in a society with rules, and you will eventually have to spit them out into it, all damp and half-formed.

I have answered so many questions from my kids with “because we live in a society,” and the older two kinda get it, and all I can hope is someday they’ll be asked by a peer to spray-paint a nursing home and my words will jangle around their Juul-hazed brains and they’ll say “let’s go get hot-and-sour soup instead.”

Your children are a delight. Cherish them. Update me.
cynthia1960: cartoon of me with gray hair wearing glasses (Default)

[personal profile] cynthia1960 2020-02-19 11:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I know, right!?
dine: (awesome - odditycollector)

[personal profile] dine 2020-02-17 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
I can think of worse rallying cries than PENIS & PAGINA!; this entire letter caused such huge smiles. and the advice is spot-on
jadelennox: Black Widow in the style of Sendak, holding a "Shield!" flag (avengers: sendak black widow)

[personal profile] jadelennox 2020-02-19 10:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I am imagining a little cartoon natasha like in my icon holding flags that say PENIS and PAGINA. Or, even better, my favorite classic Book Week poster, only PENIS and PAGINA.

1969 book week poster, showing a boy soapboxing atop a pile of books the height of a person, while other children congregate around holding signgs that say BOOK POWER
Edited 2020-02-19 22:42 (UTC)
cimorene: cartoony drawing of a woman's head in profile giving dubious side-eye (Default)

[personal profile] cimorene 2020-02-17 04:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I thought this was a phase many children go through! I can't even count the times I've been in a public place with some child loudly and either gleefully or cluelessly talking about genitals to the dismay (and varied coping strategies) of their adult companion(s).
conuly: (Default)

[personal profile] conuly 2020-02-17 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
This is perfectly normal. They will outgrow it within a year.
rosefox: Green books on library shelves. (Default)

[personal profile] rosefox 2020-02-17 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Right now my four-year-old is in the "everything is POOP" stage, so we play along when we can and don't let it be shocking.

K: Want ice cream!
R: Sure, you can have some ice cream. What kind do you want?
K: POOP *giggle giggle*
R: Oh yeah, you want POOP ice cream? Well, do you want ice cream MADE of poop [displaying chocolate ice cream] or ice cream with PIECES of poop [displaying caramel chocolate chunk ice cream]?
K: PIECES!

So they got pieces-of-poop ice cream and we laughed a lot, and someday maybe we can have conversations about other things. (My MIL is in her 70s and still thinks pooping dog keychains are hilarious, so I'm not convinced this phase is actually a phase.)

When they use "poop" to swear ("Don't wanna go to bed! It poop!") we sympathize as if they'd said "I don't like it" or "That's no fun"; if they do it to be directly rude to us ("Time to brush your teeth" "No! Poop!") we tell them it's not okay to be rude. But poop is funny and genitals are funny and it's okay to laugh about them!
lemonsharks: (Default)

[personal profile] lemonsharks 2020-02-18 05:58 am (UTC)(link)
Considering the pimple popping Reddit (r/popping) is almost a quarter million members strong... you may have a point about bodies doing gross interesting funny things not being a phase
seperis: (Default)

[personal profile] seperis 2020-02-17 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
This will likely be a delightful losing battle; one son, two nephews, three nieces, all announced their discovery of penis and vagina (and vulva, from one) in at least two and up to five-seven public venues (that I know of), sometimes directly to individual people, always at battlefield volume.

This will happen; it's hilarious. It's normal. Enjoy it. Remember each one for the hugely embarrassing stories you will tell their friends and SOs starting when they hit adolescence and until the day you die.

Congratulations; this is going to be so much fun.
melissatreglia: (angie - laugh)

[personal profile] melissatreglia 2020-02-18 01:02 am (UTC)(link)
*giggle*

LW, my dude, record that shit. Save it for posterity. You can use it as blackmail when they're older and think they're cooler than you.

But seriously, they're young. Let them be silly. They'll grow out of it.
Edited 2020-02-18 01:03 (UTC)
cynthia1960: cartoon of me with gray hair wearing glasses (Default)

[personal profile] cynthia1960 2020-02-19 11:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh yeah, this.
fred_mouse: line drawing of sheep coloured in queer flag colours with dream bubble reading 'dreamwidth' (Default)

[personal profile] fred_mouse 2020-02-18 07:52 am (UTC)(link)
I love that age, although I love it more now I'm not having to deal with it all day!
cereta: Gonnigan (Gonnigan)

[personal profile] cereta 2020-02-18 12:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I miss it now that I'm having to field weekly serious questions about puberty. Although it was fun to see my husband's face when my daughter just blurted out, "Mom, where is it I'm supposed to get hair, again?"
fred_mouse: line drawing of sheep coloured in queer flag colours with dream bubble reading 'dreamwidth' (Default)

[personal profile] fred_mouse 2020-02-19 12:53 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't remember my kids (now 22, 19, 16, ish) doing awkward questions about puberty. But then at the ages that middlest and youngest would have been asking those questions, I was working in breastfeeding research, and so I probably talked far more about those topics than the kids ever wanted to hear!