But It Tastes Good…

Children aren’t familiar with the social conventions we know as adults.   They do what they want and they don’t care.   They don’t care because they lack the knowledge to be embarrassed.    For instance, my daughter came into the living room the other morning after hunting me down in the bathroom.   She informed them, “Mom will be out as soon as she’s done wiping”.  

My son was in the bedroom on the floor the other day.   I was telling him it was time to get his shoes on so we could leave.    As I did this he absentmindedly picked his nose and then, after looking at what he’d gleaned from his nostril, put his finger into his mouth.

I didn’t get mad at him because honestly, he could have made a different choice that I might have liked less such as rubbing it on the carpet or bed.   But I told him, “In general, we don’t typically eat what comes out of our nose.”   We’ve talked about this before but it hasn’t come up in a while.   He looked at me with confusion and said, “but it tastes good”.

And this is a hard thing to argue with.   I mean, perhaps it does to him.   We had a conversation about how it would be better if he put any mucous on a tissue and then in the trash.   But that didn’t make sense to him either because that was a lot more work when eating it was so much simpler.   I said that was the way it was and he could work on it in the future.    We’ll see if he remembers.

The Big Boy Update:  The iPad location rules are working.   My son finally remembers he can only use it in one location—the sofa in the living room.    This morning he needed help and was calling for us.   I told him to come into the bedroom and I’d help him.    He called out, “but I can’t leave the couch with the iPad!”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and our friend Jen were talking tonight.   I missed most of the conversation but I overheard my daughter say, “I don’t know what dad does with all his time.   He doesn’t know my life and I don’t know his life.”