"Parts" Panic

If you have kids (or grandkids) or are an elementary school teacher, you've probably read the book Parts by Tedd Arnold. In the book, a fearful little boy panics because he's certain he's falling apart - something "gray and wet" falls out of his nose and he thinks his brain is falling out. He finds lint in his belly button and he thinks he's losing his stuffing. The skin between his toes is peeling and he thinks he's shedding his skin. At the end of the book his parents tell him - in a "oops, should have told you sooner" fashion - that these things are all normal and are not causes for alarm. They are holding a book that says something to the effect of "Parenting for Beginners". (I just packed our book away and can't remember the exact wording.) It's a funny book that the kids enjoy - especially Tyler.

We had one of those moments today - something happened to Tyler's body, and I realized I probably should have warned him about that sooner so he wouldn't panic.

In the car tonight Tyler was really quiet, so I asked him what was wrong. He finally said, "My pen*s is really really dirty." Ron added, "Oh yeah. When I took him to the bathroom he kept looking at his pen*s and said it was really dirty." I said, "Well, was it?" "I don't know. I didn't look at it!" Men! I reassured Tyler that I would check things out when we got home to make sure everything was ok.

As I was helping the kids get their pjs on, I remembered Tyler's issue of concern. "Ok, let me see it." I said bravely. He got that worried look on his face again and slowly pulled his shorts down. He held it out for me to see and exclaimed, "See! See how dirty it is?!" He was seriously concerned, so I did not laugh. Instead I reassuringly said, "Tyler, that's just black fuzz from your new underwear. It will wash off and you'll be just fine. " You could see the relief wash over his scrunched up brow. "It'll wash off?" "Yep. You can take a bath tomorrow and see. It'll be just fine." Guess I should have warned him about new underwear fuzz on the goodies. Oops.