ninanevermore (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ninanevermore) wrote2006-07-05 03:13 pm
ninanevermore) wrote2006-07-05 03:13 pm
Wednesday - The Naming of Parts
Today on my drive into work, I was thinking about my son, who is interested in learning the names of things right now. He knows his nose, his eyes, his ears, his hair, tongue, his belly, his hands, his knees, and his feet. He can point these out when you ask him to show you. But some parts he is still learning about, such as the parts he only sees when he is having a bath or getting his diaper changed.
I have only a limited idea of what parenting should entail and therefore glean most of my parental knowledge from books written by people who purport to know a thing of two about childrearing. Of course, there is chaff to separate from grain in these tomes. For example, these books tell me that simply by making healthy foods available to my child, he will crave them and want to eat them. When he was a baby eating pureed food from jars, this was mostly true. If I put a spoon of something in front of his mouth, he was a trooper and he accepted it. When he became old enough to eat chunky food that he could pick up with his own hands, though, he decided that while he might pick up food that was of plant origin, it would only be so that he could throw it on the floor or maybe at the dog. Depending on what the food is, the dog is okay with this.
I will not say that my son does not enjoy vegetables at all. Green peas bounce nicely, and then roll for a few inches before they come to a stop. This is very entertaining. Green beans do not roll so well, and are less interesting. They are best dumped on the floor in a heap just to get them off of your plate. Cooked carrots act a lot like green beans, and get treated in the same matter. Yam slices make a nice "smacking" sound when they hit the ground and make good projectiles.
Despite what the books tell me, I have found that gummy vitamins in the shape of Winnie The Pooh characters are a nice alternative to healthy food, which I continue to offer in case he ever changes his mind or gets curious about what a vegetable tastes like again. My son's only complaint about the gummy vitamins is that I only let him have one at a time, once a day. He would like to eat the entire bottle in one sitting, and has expressed his displeasure about this by pointing to the vitamin bottle and making his I'm-going-to-cry face. I have explained patiently that he can only have one, but he still thinks that I am being a jerk about the whole thing.
Another piece of advice that the books have given me is that the proper, medical names should be taught for all body parts, and slang terms should be avoided. I mentioned this to Jeff when I read it.
"So we should stop calling his genitals his junk, I guess," I concluded.
Jeff shook his head. "You might not realize this because you're a woman and you don't have junk, but 'junk' is a proper medical term. Look it up."
I confess that I still say junk when I am telling my son something like, "Come back here so I can put a diaper on you. Everyone doesn't need to see your junk hanging out." He has recently discovered the joys of nudity and how refreshing it feels to run through the house with the breeze hitting all of his most sensitive parts. Convincing him that it is better to wear clothes is proving to be a hard sell.
However, when he points to that thing between his legs and makes the musical note that translates into, "And what is this called?" I helpfully tell him that it is his penis.
Jeff feels a need to give a more conceptual answer. "Son," he says, "Someday that is going to be your best friend and your worst enemy."
I will give it to Jeff that, technically speaking, both of us are probably correct. Since our son is just now attempting to master language, though, I think that short, simple words are easier for him. "Penis" is a word that he has a good chance of mastering without too much trouble. On the other hand, I suspect that "my best friend and worst enemy" might be a bit much for him to try to say at this age, no matter how true of a description it may be in the future.
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I have only a limited idea of what parenting should entail and therefore glean most of my parental knowledge from books written by people who purport to know a thing of two about childrearing. Of course, there is chaff to separate from grain in these tomes. For example, these books tell me that simply by making healthy foods available to my child, he will crave them and want to eat them. When he was a baby eating pureed food from jars, this was mostly true. If I put a spoon of something in front of his mouth, he was a trooper and he accepted it. When he became old enough to eat chunky food that he could pick up with his own hands, though, he decided that while he might pick up food that was of plant origin, it would only be so that he could throw it on the floor or maybe at the dog. Depending on what the food is, the dog is okay with this.
I will not say that my son does not enjoy vegetables at all. Green peas bounce nicely, and then roll for a few inches before they come to a stop. This is very entertaining. Green beans do not roll so well, and are less interesting. They are best dumped on the floor in a heap just to get them off of your plate. Cooked carrots act a lot like green beans, and get treated in the same matter. Yam slices make a nice "smacking" sound when they hit the ground and make good projectiles.
Despite what the books tell me, I have found that gummy vitamins in the shape of Winnie The Pooh characters are a nice alternative to healthy food, which I continue to offer in case he ever changes his mind or gets curious about what a vegetable tastes like again. My son's only complaint about the gummy vitamins is that I only let him have one at a time, once a day. He would like to eat the entire bottle in one sitting, and has expressed his displeasure about this by pointing to the vitamin bottle and making his I'm-going-to-cry face. I have explained patiently that he can only have one, but he still thinks that I am being a jerk about the whole thing.
Another piece of advice that the books have given me is that the proper, medical names should be taught for all body parts, and slang terms should be avoided. I mentioned this to Jeff when I read it.
"So we should stop calling his genitals his junk, I guess," I concluded.
Jeff shook his head. "You might not realize this because you're a woman and you don't have junk, but 'junk' is a proper medical term. Look it up."
I confess that I still say junk when I am telling my son something like, "Come back here so I can put a diaper on you. Everyone doesn't need to see your junk hanging out." He has recently discovered the joys of nudity and how refreshing it feels to run through the house with the breeze hitting all of his most sensitive parts. Convincing him that it is better to wear clothes is proving to be a hard sell.
However, when he points to that thing between his legs and makes the musical note that translates into, "And what is this called?" I helpfully tell him that it is his penis.
Jeff feels a need to give a more conceptual answer. "Son," he says, "Someday that is going to be your best friend and your worst enemy."
I will give it to Jeff that, technically speaking, both of us are probably correct. Since our son is just now attempting to master language, though, I think that short, simple words are easier for him. "Penis" is a word that he has a good chance of mastering without too much trouble. On the other hand, I suspect that "my best friend and worst enemy" might be a bit much for him to try to say at this age, no matter how true of a description it may be in the future.
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The boys in my family called it a "deedle". I hope for their sake they learned a better name sometime after puberty.
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We call it his weewee, but sometimes I say "Hey, you know your weewee is really called a penis. Isn't that interesting?" Then he asks why girls don't have weewees. My answer? "Because then they'd be boys."
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Now, as a grown-up, married woman, I can appreciate them a bit more.
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My little brother's thing was called a "doodle". But that's a hard one, cos eventually it needs to progress into something a little some manly.
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All three terms refers to the whole genital unit, not just the penis. I suppose junk sounds like a negative term, but it's usually used more neutrally, as in "I need to unload all of my junk out of the car," or "I hate unpacking my junk after getting home from a trip." That is an American usage of the word junk, in general; using it to mean "my stuff that I own and need but that I'm not bragging about."
Maybe I'll switch to "package" instead. It's certainly more positive.