Having a good relationship with your body is never a bad thing. It promotes better self-care, self-esteem, and overall happiness. Bodily exploration is also mentally and physically healthy.
But one toddler's fascination with this penis is wreaking havoc on his family — in possibly the funniest way (well to the internet at least) ever.
A mom took to Reddit to get some advice on what to do about her toddler who has been obsessed with his penis since he discovered it at 6 months old.
"Can't even blame him; I'm sure if I had one, I'd play with it too," she jokes. "But here's the thing, it's his favorite thing to mess with when he's sleepy. It used to be his ear, then belly button, and now he's found the gold mine of comfort: Penis!"
His funny obsession really isn't that funny when mom is struggling to get him down for the night.
"I am all for having a good relationship with your own body, HOWEVER, he always ends up pulling his diaper down or pointing his penis up so that he pees all over himself which wakes him up and makes a huge mess," she says.
Not to mention, the mom is really, really sick of pee being everywhere and the lack of sleep they get because they have to clean up the messes.
"He now only sleeps in onesies so that he can't go down from the waist, but he goes down through the neck," she says. "Short of taping his penis down (joking, I wouldn't do that) is there anything I can do? I don't want to shame him for exploring his body, and the cause/effect is really hard for him to see when the effect is happening while he's sleeping. HELP. I'm so sick of pee everywhere."
"This too shall pass," echoed parents across the internet, while giving her some of their go-to survival tips.
"Put puppy training pads under him as he sleeps," advises one user. "It's his way of self comforting and will eventually pass. I wouldn't be too worried. My daughter's thing is ears…she will reach for my ear and play with my earlobe when she needs comfort."
The most popular suggestion was to have the mom put him in tight onesie PJs backwards, though even a few of those folks took it a bit far.
"Mine used to do the same [expletive] thing," laments another parent. "Backwards zip up pajamas is what we had to go with, and I even had to start sewing him in because 3 days in a row he managed to get the zip down far enough to free his arms and went right back to it!"
Others recommended diaper inserts to help absorb some of the pee for an added layer of protection. We hope this phase passes quickly for this sleep-deprived mama and her exhausted family.
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
