Suck It!

I was checking out the "On Parenting" blog over at washingtonpost.com and stumbled on a blurb about thumbsucking. Now, before we go further, you should know my stance on thumbsucking. I am in favor of it.

As a child, I sucked my thumb as long as it was socially acceptable. And then I sucked it some more. To this day, I still think about sucking my thumb. Thumbsucking is a panacea for the diaper-set, but I'm willing to bet that after a good meal, a nice thumbsuck is as satisfying as a cigar or brandy.

What caught my eye in this post was not just thumbsucking, but that thumbsucking is often accompanied by a secondary habit, the article mentions hair twirling. My secondary habit was nose-picking (yes, I am remarkably well-adjusted, thanks for asking). But nosepicking seems downright cordial compared to:

"Unfortunately, my son's mindless secondary habit was pulling his private parts out of his pants."

Wow. This kid is so far ahead of himself, I don't even know where to begin. I hope the author captured this on video to send to America's Funniest Home Videos, or to use as future blackmail.

This is just another example of things a child under five can do and be cute, while others who do the same thing are just plain creepy.

The good news for the author is that she and her husband did wean their son off of thumb-sucking . They didn't have to resort to anything sordid like shame, guilt or bitter tasting thumbsucking deterrent paste. They did it the old fashioned way: bribery.