This past week, an infrequent friend of ours, whose daughter is also in MLIs daycare class and who is a single mother, was moving. Having lived through this particular brand of hell with our own kids, we offered to watch her daughter during the process; something which she took us up on with hardly a moment’s thought.
CareerMom picked them up from Daycare and within five minutes of being in the house, they both came running downstairs wearing nothing but their skivvies! This has become a common enough thing for MLI lately, it being what he calls his “Tarzan” look; but I was unprepared to have a near-naked four-year-old little girl running around the house.
I mean, we have boys and I’m used to naked fellers running around here, but even though she’s only 4, it seemed like there was something wrong with it! I know, it’s stupid; it’s what society has done to us by crucifying anyone found having “inappropriate” pictures of kids on their computer.
It’s made us hyper-aware and while I’ll admit that overall, it’s probably a good thing, at the same time a person shouldn’t feel weird when their (very young) kids, and an opposite-gender friend, want to play Tarzan together…or take a bath together…or sleep in the same bed together…
(As you can see, the evening just got “weirder” and “weirder” for my personal tastes.)
I realize there are millions of family’s with two kids of the opposite gender, who live with this every day, and that they probably give it zero thought, but I suppose when you don’t live with it, and it’s someone else’s child, you can’t help but feel a little bit, well…creepy!
I was also surprised to find that little boys and little girls at that age (esp. when the girl is a tomboy) pretty much like the same things. I learned a bit about little girls this past week and maybe a bit about myself too…odd how that keeps happening at my age.
del.icio.us Tags: kids,children,playing together,boys and girls
Postulates & Pastimes 
I don’t know…with different gendered siblings I think it can quickly escalate to creepiness…I don’t know if you watched friends at all, but I would always think back to Ross and Monica, and how they would randomly sit on each other’s laps and hold hands for no reason…….whaaaa???
RE: Yeah, it was as if the producers had run out of room to fit everyone on stage and still get a closeup, and then someone said, “Hey, Monica and Ross are related right? Eh, just let Monica sit in his lap. Siblings do that all the time.”
Except…they don’t really.
We have one of each, so nothing surprises us. But I’d be thinking the same thing if I were in your shoes.
Re: The sad thing is, it would have been a really cute picture for them to look back on in 20 years, but there’s no way in a million years that I’d take it to Target to get developed!
My son (6) has a girl as his best friend. They always play wedding and family wherer they are the mom and dad. One day when they were playing the yelled for my husband to go up in the bedroom to see what they did. They had made a mock crib for my daughter to sleep in and they (the two 5yr olds–at the time) were sharing his bed. They were all in underpants. Wehn questioned my son said “your a daddy and you sleep in your underwear and she thought it was not fair if she did not get to and Julianna just did it because she is a baby and is pretending it is a diaper.” My husband said “until you are a really mommy and daddy, you do not sleep in a bed with each other with only underwear on–pretend OR for real.” The littel girl really thinks she is going to marry my son and will say it to anyone she can–she has since she was 3 years old.
Regarding siblings our bath togetehr but we have to have a no touching policy!!!
RE: HA HA HA! Ok, I didn’t even think to offer a “no touching” policy. Somehow, unless/until I see them do it, I figure it’s probably not a good idea to introduce the idea to them…”What? You mean we could touch each other while we have no clothes on? Why?”
HA HA HA! Oh, I’m gettin’ a good chuckle outta that one.
Speaking of Friends, didn’t Rachel or Monica break up with a guy (played by Paul Rudd) who had pillow fights with his sister…as an adult?
I never sit in my brother’s lap.
RE: I wouldn’t even be comfortable with my half-sister sitting in my lap…Course…that might be even creepier.
OH, but lemme tell you this: So, I told you about my sordid family background right? Well, after I graduated from high school, I drove (alone) up to NC to visit my graduating cousins (both girls). One of my cousins and I are really close friends and so we hung out a lot together for a few days while I was there. Well, we were sitting around her mom’s beauty salon and one of the ladies there mentioned what a cute couple we made. We both laughed of course and then her mom said, “Well, it wouldn’t matter anyway, they aren’t blood related.”
Ba da boom!
And people make fun of Alabama!
To Allison: ya Rachel broke up with a guy who’s brother and sister had pillow fights, AND she drew his bath for him, and they wrestled….ahh, so much awkwardness 😉 …and I think it was a guy who looked like Paul Rudd, ’cause Paul Rudd’s dude married Phoebe right? I have a crush on Paul Rudd ’cause he’s so funny in everything he acts in, but now I’m just drooling on Dobeman’s blog, hahaha 😉
To Romi: Yep, it was Paul Rudd with Phoebe. That’s going to drive me crazy trying to remember who played the friendly brother.
Dobeman: So that you don’t feel left out, that is very icky about the cousin thing. My neighbor is from NC…I will have to interrogate her about the norms of her state.
One more comment, I promise!
Romi, it was George Newbern. He does kind of look like Paul Rudd.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0627624/
Hahaha, thanks for clearing that up…he bears quite a resemblance to Paul Rudd…and also, looks like he’s made quite the lengthy career out of guest spots and voice work, good for him! 🙂
Thanks to the two of you, we’ve set a new record of “Responses” on my blog.
It’s a trifle compared to the two of yours, but I’m totally counting it even though it’s mostly the same two people!
mostly the same people or not, it’s a lively conversation! 😉
One more comment from Bio-Mom!! Times have really changed. When I was a little girl growing up in rural Florida most kids under the age of 6 or so ran around topless all summer. Now, probably not so much, I’m thinking!