Stupid Questions

A while ago I had a very special dinner date....with my then 7 year old son. To make a long story short, my daughter and hubby were at a birthday party together, so he and I were on our own. We had a romantic dinner for two at the local pizzeria.

At some point in our conversation, I had the chance to do the "there's no such thing as a stupid question" schpeel. I don't know what prompted it, but I went on to tell him how he could ask me or his dad anything especially if there was anything said at school or among his friends that he didn't understand. It was okay not to know what they were talking about and if he felt comfortable, he could ask them...or one of us.

I figured it had gone in one ear and out the other, when a few minutes later he asked me, "Mom, do you know what a 'johnson' is? The expression on his face just made me grin from ear to ear, which then made me laugh. I couldn't help myself. And then he started to giggle.

I answered him with a nod and then he pushed me. "What is it, mommy?"

And then, I had a flashback to my own childhood, when I would've asked my overly religious latin mother a similar kind of question and she a) probably wouldn't have known what the word really meant given that English is not her first language (and so would've imagined it to be even worse than what it really was) and b) if she did know, she would have acted all naive and dumb so as to not divulge too much information to me. Her response to "what is it mommy?" would've been...."I don't know?" Which then would've made me second guess whether or not I should even say anything...and then it would be over. An opportunity lost.

So, I looked at my son...cupped my hand around my mouth, leaned towards him across the table and then whispered, "Penis." He was thrilled! "Yeah mommy you know what it is!!" As a friend of mind said later on when I shared the story, I instantly had "street cred" with my 7 year old.

I'm pretty sure I did the right thing. Hopefully this will become a little trusting moment in history that was shared between us and that will help as he enters his teenage years.

It was one of the best romantic dinners EVER!