Goodies

I was recently reading in my friend's blog that her son refers to Mr. Winky-Dink as his "goodies". I thought it was pretty hysterical and wondered how long it would be before I would have to come up with some unique terms that my own kids could use to refer to their "stuff". Sure...I could be the Mom who teaches her child "penis" and "vagina" at very early ages...and moves on to the "facts of life" by Kindergarten...but the whole thing sort of makes me cringe. I don't really think there is a wrong or a right way to handle the situation. I'm pretty sure the only thing you shouldn't do is to tell your child that if they touch it, it will catch on fire and fall off. If you stay away from negative associations that will scar your child for life, you should be o.k. Anyway, Lili has always been the child to reach down into her diaper because her Mama freaked out the 1st time she did it and Lili THRIVES on the reactions of others. I have used all kinds of terms over the last few months, but mainly I just called it "that"....don't touch "that" (by the way, the reason I'm telling her not to touch it is because most of the time it's when I'm changing a diaper, so she's basically sticking her hand in fresh pee or poop). Well, we're kind of getting to the point where a little more needs to be said. Last night we had both kids in the bath...Will was in his bathseat and Lili was sitting nearby. Suddenly she reached down to pull on Mr. Winky-Dink. I gently took her hand away and told her that she couldn't touch his goodies because it would hurt him. Yes, I adopted the term that my friend implemented. We had a whole conversation about how Lili has her goodies...and brother has his goodies...and Lili can touch her goodies...and Will can touch his goodies...but Lili should not touch Will's goodies...and Will should not touch Lili's goodies... When I was done, Will...with the most impeccable timing...reached down and pulled on his own goodies. He then looked up and gave Lili and I the biggest grin. All I could think of at that moment was..."Well, you're definitely a BOY!"...