Jesus Made my Peanuts

On a completely unrelated and potentially awkward topic to those who are not a brazen as I, I want to share with you something my 4 1/2 year old son said this morning that impressed me.

Being a young child he is curious about his environment and himself, including his...well..."peanuts."  I assume I don't need to elaborate here.  He's not obsessive.  We discouraged "self-discovery," to put it nicely, and he doesn't walk around with his hands down his pants, but yesterday he did fashion his blankets into a curious position around his hips and parade himself around the house showcasing his latest creation.  *sigh*

"No Baby," I told him. "That's nasty." 
"It's just my blankets, not my real peanuts!" he protested.

I tried to explain to him that 'peanuts' are good, but we don't make jokes about them or show them off to other people, but the duration of his attention span made me doubt that he got it.

But then this morning, I guess maybe he proved me wrong.  When we were getting dressed he made some other comment about his 'peanuts', I forget exactly what, but when I began to respond with another round of, "Our peanuts are good but..." he cut me off and started into his own mini lecture:

"Our peanuts are good, and Jesus made them for us but we don't play with them or let other people see them?"

 

SCORE! 

I just think to myself, "He's got the beginning of a healthy understanding of his body and his sexuality."  I know, understanding sexuality and a 4 1/2 don't usually belong anywhere near the same sentence, but it starts early.  If he thinks his peanuts are nasty or bad, where would that leave him in 20 years?  Thinking they are amazing and tons of fun to play with is probably just as bad - just on the opposite swing of the pendulum.  I think he's hit it right on the money. 

 

Now, if he can just hold on to it for 20 more years.   *sigh*