Saturday, December 3, 2011

Doody-head

We were met by my son's teacher yesterday at pickup time. She was concerned about the 'bathroom talk'. I was momentarily confused, then I realized that she was referring to my son's current raging case of 'potty-mouth'.

For the past week, my son has called everyone around him, including my cat Morris, a 'doody-head', a 'dookie', and other variations of the same. All Zane can talk about is the potty--what sits on it, what goes in it, etc. These are words that we do not use, and we naturally assumed that Zane acquired this new vocabulary from his social group. We get that. Zane is apparently at the age where it is developmentally appropriate to talk about poop with your peeps.

Larry and I have discussed Zane's behavior with each other, and with him, several times. We can't even bring up any of the words without Zane exploding in giggles. Of course, every time my husband hears the word 'doody', he giggles. He's like Pavlov's dog that way. I'm not much better, I must confess. I have to fight off the urge to snicker, and everyone knows that you can't be a stern disciplinarian and snicker. It's just not done.

While Zane's teacher was talking, what am I thinking about? I am the MOM here, after all! I should be thinking about MOM things, right? Am I considering all the possible consequences I can inflict on my child as punishment for his wayward behavior? Am I rifling through my assorted behavior management tricks to find just the right thing to nip this particular behavior in the butt? (Sorry. Could not resist.)

No.

All that was going through my head was the Babe Ruth scene from the movie Caddyshack. I nodded and tried to look concerned, while in my head I was seeing Bill Murray in the hazmat suit holding the offending candy bar.

"What was that all about?" Larry wanted to know when we finally got out to the car.

What could I tell him?

"Doody."

5 comments:

  1. My son is currently going through the doody phase. It's totally his dad's fault. They have doody name calling contests. Boys. So I try to stress the importance of keeping all doody and doody related talk to the house. No talking about underwear, pooping, peeing, farting or calling anyone names related to any of those things when you step outside of the house. That works... sometimes.

    The other day we spent the morning running errands and I had to constantly ask, "Are you supposed to talk about that outside of the house?". As soon as he stepped foot in the door he yelled. "UNDERWEAR!!!". What's a mom to do??

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you find out how to make it stop, let me know because at 14, the boy is still going strong. I guess it just shifts as to when they deem appropriate timest o discuss all things potty! Let's face it, the Everyone Poops book really doesn't mention when it should be discussed, just how everyone does it! I am sorry that I snickered that the teacher talked to you, but I did.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think all moms go through a stage of their kids using words we just don't know where they came from. The good news is with most kids it's just a phase soon to replaced by a new phase :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. im horrible.. i just laughed reading this whole thing. Mine went through a phase of telling people he loves boobs. Luckily he stopped on his own because all i could do was laugh when he'd say it lol

    ReplyDelete
  5. now I can't stop giggling uncontrollably!!!! You "doody-head!!!!"

    ReplyDelete

I welcome comments, but reserve the right to correct your spelling because I am OCD about it!