Ok, Guilty Mothers, so we all can’t resist a little bit of toilet humour, but I fear my son is taking this to the next level. Everything just seems to revolve around words like poo in your pants, poopy pants, you’re a poo, pee in your pants, poo head, you’re a poo mummy and the list continues. I mean what more could I ask for in life than being greeted by my son mooning me as I walk in the door from work. Well, it is a cute bottom I suppose.

The issue I have is when he starts shouting these words when we are in the middle of our local supermarket or somewhere respectable. He’s starting saying “poo in your pants” all time time and even sings about it. I’m certain this is just a phase and I’m not sure how to correct him other than telling him that we don’t need to talk about poo all the time. “Ok mummy”. He says sweetly. “You’re poopy!” and legs it down the next aisle of the supermarket.

Four-year-olds are, without question very entertaining and full of surprises. If you haven’t read my previous post ‘pants down for security’ and you want to read about surprises, I would recommend you give this a read.

According to research I have been reading by Dr. Lawrence Kutner who is a nationally known clinical psychologist and teaches at Harvard Medical School. He says that the specific things children laugh at tell us which developmental tasks they are struggling with. That is a pattern that runs throughout childhood. It explains why 3-year-olds, who are often still mastering toilet training, are enthralled by “bathroom” humor while 7-year-olds, who no longer consider toilet-training an issue, think such jokes are just silly.

Aside from the toilet talk, my son is really great company (most of the time!). He seems to find pretty much everything interesting and loves to know more about how everything work. He runs over walks, jumps over sits and when things go wrong he will stop completely. Most of the time he runs around with a health and safety warning. I become an anxious mother as I fear he may knock himself out at any given moment. And…yes, this has happened before.

So it would seem clear that laughing and smiling are the most important things for feeding the soul – no matter what your age. I love it when my children just expand into these unprompted almighty roars of laughter. Isn’t it the best sound in the world?

On reflection, I’m not convinced any of us ever really grow out of toilet humour. In fact, I might not be able to keep my son from constantly putting his hand down his pants but whatever happens, I hope he doesn’t ever lose his sense of humour. He’s going to need it.

Guilty Mother’s Top 5 Funny Books: –

1. Pirate Pete’s Potty by Andrea Pinnington
2. The Story of the Little Mole – by Werner Holzwarth
3. Poo Bum by Stephanie Blake
4. Father Christmas needs a wee by Nicholas Allan
5. Who’s in the Loo? by Jeanne Willis