Friday, November 13, 2009

Embarrassing questions

Driving in the car today, I looked over at my son and noticed the hair above his upper lip is a little darker, a little more coarse than the baby-fine hair he has on his face. I pointed it out, "You've got the beginnings of a mustache."
He pulled down the visor and inspected the growth, telling me that some kids at school have serious crops of fuzz.
"Do you have any hair down there?" I asked.
As someone recently pointed out, I lack certain filters.
What can I say? I'm a mom. I am curious about these things.
Not only would he not answer, but he wouldn't acknowledge that I'd asked a question.
I even tried to bribe him.
Pulling into the Blockbuster parking lot, he asked me if he could get some junk food.
"If you answer my question, I'll let you get junk food."
It didn't work. "No junk food for you."
If I'd had a daughter, she would have answered me.
I'm in unfamiliar territory here. I knew my question would embarrass him before I asked it, though it wasn't my intention. I'm just curious! If my kid is approaching puberty, I want to know!
Why do I need to know? What will I do with the information? Don't answer that. I already know the answer: It's his body; my my own business.
I'd probably blog about it, anyway.
The kid's smart to keep it to himself.

2 comments:

katshepherd said...

I would suggest that even if you had a daughter, she might not have wanted to share this information with you. I wasn't a "sharer" as an adolescent - I felt a strong need to keep many circumstances, thoughts and feelings to myself. My mother would push me to share with her and later, my sister and she shared everything. Interestingly enough, I'm not a private person as an adult. But something about keeping information to myself as a teenager helped me to begin to develop my independence, to feel control over something when life (hormones, emotions, etc.) often felt so out of control. Sorry that this doesn't help your situation, I just thought I'd share. Shawn pointed me to your blog and thought I'd enjoy your writing - and I do!

NoelleInAZ said...

Thank you, Kate! I'm flattered. I was the complete opposite growing up. I blabbed everything that happened to me. Ooooh, that gives me an idea for another entry ...