Saturday morning a loud buzzing noise filled my head. It kind of felt like a giant swarm of bees had invaded. I was puzzled; after all, I had only one glass of wine the night before and I didn’t feel ill or dizzy in any way. “Do you HEAR that?” I asked my husband hesitantly, somewhat worried that I was just going crazy or something. Turns out it was just the background noise, from the World Cup and those weird vuvuzelas.
I always thought my husband was a total sports nut, a junkie, but then I met some REAL sports nuts and not I realize that he is just a fan, someone who follows a lot of sports and could tell you who placed first and who choked and who set a record, for pretty much any sport from football and hockey to horse racing and Nascar. He only watches a few sports very closely: American football, which I enjoy watching to some degree, and golf, which I do not enjoy at all thanks to the monotone-voiced commentators (“…and here’s the chip shot out of the bunker. Oh. Nice shot. Now it’s a putt for birdie…”) and also anything international, like the Olympics or the World Cup.
Mark, perhaps due to his participation in community soccer, has taken an interest in the World Cup. “Do you think I could play in the World Cup one day?” he asked. How honest is too honest? It’s hard to find the balance between being truthful and breaking your child’s spirit. “Um, maybe if you practice really hard, you could,” is the response I went with.
But really, how honest are you with your children? My friend sent me this article, and I am not prudish, I don’t think, but I was absolutely creeped out by it. For one thing, Mr. Purple? That’s what you call it? For another thing, your child was touching your sex toy? Ew. I couldn’t even get past those two pieces of information. Maybe I’m more prudish than I think I am. Mark had gotten a dinosaur book from the library, and apparently it was meant for a much older child, as it had a picture of Allosauruses mating. Mating! What are those dinosaurs doing, Mom? Um, let’s turn the page and see! Look! Baby Allosauruses! I have a feeling this is not the last of it.
I think there is a difference between being honest and being age appropriate. Your answer to your son leaves the door open to the possibility, but neither did you say, “of course son, you can do whatever you want if you work hard enough” (which isn’t always true).
As for Mr. Purple, I may be creeped out for the rest of the day.
Going to have to ditto happygeek here, since she put it so perfectly.
Wow. I read that article, and I must be a prude also. I have no problem talking with my kids about how our bodies feel pleasure (whenever they approach me with questions). I would never want them to feel that they are doing anything wrong by touching their own bodies. But I am very uncomfortable with the idea of telling a 6 year old about a sex toy.
Following you via Google Friend. Thanks for sharing, i’ll be digging into archives. You can also follow me at Safe Home Happy Mom
Interesting topic as it falls on the first day of “human sexuality” in my daughters class. My kids are growing up too fast!
The problem with that article for me is not that she told her daughter what Mr Purple is, but that she had apparently used it the night before and left it lying there for her kid to find and play with. So it’s not just a sex toy but a dirty sex toy which is seriously gross. Yuck.