To Circumcise or Not

For some reason in our household talking to the kids about "sensitive" subjects always seems to fall to me. And not only that, but Marty doesn't even want to be present when the conversation happens. Now, to be fair, Marty has never flat out refused, but he always says he needs to "think" about it first -- to "prepare" a little. Translated that means if I want the conversation to happen this decade I need to do it. Unfortunately in my frustration with him I too often rush headlong into the discussion when a little preparation might have helped. The topic this time was circumcision, or rather, lack of. Of my five sons, only one is circumsized. With number one you do what the doctor tells you and if he tells you that 99% of women need an episiotomy and that your son needs to be circumsized, you do it. Times have changed, but I won't digress. I've often wondered if the four "tubes" ever wanted to be "toadstools." And if so, should we do something about it.Riding shotgun while one son is driving and another is a passenger is a great time to have this kind of conversation for the obvious reasons -- you have a captive audience and no one has to look anyone else in the eye. Having learned the hard way that jumping right into "touchy" subjects doesn't always make for easy conversations I tried to ease my way into it. I told them that I had a question but not to freak out about it. To pretend I was asking a question about a school assignment or a hairstyle. Already bored to tears by the sound of my voice they rushed me along. "Yeah, yeah, mom, stop explaining and just ask." I asked them if they were content with the shape of their unit. What with the red faces, leg crossing, protective hand position you’d have thought I was wielding a knife and offering to do the procedure right there. Marty often tells me I’m a cheap date because I find myself so amusing that he doesn’t have to do much to entertain me. Well, I got such a laugh over this little episode with the boys that I decided my other teenage son needed to have the same conversation. Well, this time I was even better prepared. I'd recruited (bribed) the two “seasoned” sons to help me out with the ding dong conversation. We planned to do it in the car (duh) and with dad present. My two helpers were to act like this was the first time I was bringing this subject up and to act really casual, like it was no big deal to talk about. It worked great. Marty's jaw dropped as my partners in crime calmly discussed the pros and cons (showering after PE is quite revealing apparently). Our prey stared out the window the whole time with a little grin that I couldn't quite interpret. Interestingly one did ask for a change.