“Ooooh I just tooted.” “Hey you have a stinky butt.” “That smells poopy.” “You’re face looks like you just farted.” “Angus has poop coming out of his butt.”
Potty talk. Our 5-year-old Dashiell seems to spew it 24/7, generally punctuated with howls of laughter. For us, we wonder if there will ever be, ahem, an end to potty talk. Are we talking college here?
For an answer I turned to Kelly Davidson, the director of the Early Learning Center at Everett Community College.
I asked Davidson what works. Do we ignore the potty talk and hope it runs its course – I’m not even trying to make these puns — or do we tell Dash that potty talk is impolite and makes us sound dumb?
Davidson gave me thoughtful answers.
Obviously most kids in this age group are still struggling to master that area of their bodies and are also still so fascinated by it, Davidson began.
“And that gets everyone so squirmy!” Davidson said. “Kids don’t think it is dumb to talk potty talk – they know it is powerful and daring – or why else would they do it?”
Oh yeah. That’s right.
Davidson went on to say that parents can keep perspective about this problem when they remember that this challenging stage is developmentally appropriate and predictable. And children can go predictably in and out of this stage, depending upon a parent’s response, “although it can be prolonged due to parental insistence and/or child persistence,” Davidson said.
She said parents could be proactive about potty talk by:
—- Going the highly scientific route, giving serious answers to every possible question about this mysterious and powerful subject, or
—- Agreeing that potty talk is funny, and giving a total go on all jokes said in the bathroom.
Davidson also suggested the book “Everyone Poops,” by Taro Gomi, if parents and kids want to have a good laugh together.
Other good body science titles are:
“The Holes in Your Nose”
“The Gas We Pass”
“Breasts”
“Contemplating Your Belly Button”
“All About Scabs”
Also, check out this very funny and informative back-and-forth about a dad and his potty-talk prone son Jack: http://wondertime.go.com/parent-to-parent/article/potty-talk.html.
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