Sunday, May 25, 2008

The difference between boys and girls...

This is a recurring topic of conversation these days. For both kids. Boys have penises. Girls don't. What do girls have? Where does the pee come out?

Sierra's intrigued by penises. Imagine this: She's sitting at gymnastics class next to her dad with all the other kids and their parents waiting on instructions. She asks, "Daddy, do you have a penis?" "Yes." "Can I see it?"

Owen is confused that girls do not have penises. I'm in the mall public restroom in the handicapped stall with both kids. Owen asks, "Why do you sit down to pee?" "Well I don't have a penis to aim with, so I have to sit down to pee." "Were does the pee come out? The same hole as your poop?" "No, there's a different hole for the pee to come out." "Where is it?" "It's in about the same place as where your penis is, but there's no penis." "Can I see it?" "Owen, we're in a public bathroom, can we talk about this at home later...?"

Bathtub conversations between the two kids is becoming interesting sometimes, too. When is it time to make the kids take separate baths? I'm trying to be as nonchalant about it all as I can. I don't want the kids to be uptight about sex and sexuality, and I'm sure that attitudes I pass along now will be hard to change later. In the meantime, their curiosity is quite amusing.

1 comment:

Susan Z said...

This is soooo like my life at the moment. We regularly have conversations about who does and who doesn't have penises. Tonight I thought Andy said "Girls have butts" and I was wondering if he thought female pubic areas were butts...but it turned out that he meant "girls have breasts" which they do...but so do guys (just not as big). So much to sort out.