Saturday, March 08, 2008

What's in Your Nose?

Cole has a snail in his.

One of his preschool teachers told him that if he picks his nose, a snail that lives there will bite his finger. I think it is a cute way to avoid spreading some preschool germs. Rob, however, is greatly disturbed.

When the snail came up in conversation the first time, Rob spent at least 30 minutes trying to convince Cole that his teacher was kidding.

He looked up Cole's nose and had Cole look up his to prove snails weren't there. Cole replied, "You can't see them. They're up really high."

Rob explained that there's nothing for a snail to eat there. Cole's rely was something along the lines of "Duh, it eats boogers."

Rob even resorted to "Who do you believe, your teacher or your daddy." The teacher won, much to Rob's dismay (I think homeschooling seriously crossed his mind).

In fact, Rob's attempts to dissuade have made Cole believe even more firmly. The snail is a regular topic of conversation now. Cole has determined that it lives in "the hard part" at the bridge of his nose; it doesn't mind sneezes, only fingers; and that everyone has a snail, even if he (i.e., daddy) doesn't believe it.

3 comments:

Sunshine said...

I prefer to think of these disciplinary tactics as "creative lying". I'm not ashamed to say I've creatively lied at least half a million times in order to change certain behaviors.

Sometimes it works, mostly it doesn't. :)

Robyn said...

So, I was reading this blog post to Paul, and he immediately said "That's a Shell Silverstein poem!" So I looked it up and, of course, he was right. It's from "Where the Sidewalk Ends." So I think you should just tell Rob that the teacher is teaching Cole classic literature. :)

Inside everybody’s nose
There lives a sharp-toothed snail.
So if you stick your finger in,
He may bite off your nail.
Stick it farther up inside,
And he may bite your ring off.
Stick it all the way, and he
May bite the whole darn thing off.

Jennifer Behnke said...

Josh went through a really fundamentalist stage like this at about Cole's age. He punched me on the jaw one night when we were reading a bedtime story from his Sunday school bible and I tried to explain that Noah's Ark was just a story--it didn't actually happen. Here's my theory. Cole's just experimenting with authorities in his life. Josh abandoned his faith after watching the Land Before Time, which he believed about evolution more than mommy's crazy ideas.