Modesty?

When I write The Complete Guide to Being a Stay-at-Home Dad, I'm going to include a chapter on all things one loses when he becomes a SAHD, because no one really warned me beforehand. There is no more personal space - almost all children are clingy, climbing, grabbing close-talkers who live in perpetual orbit around you. After three changes in one day, you lose your desire to wear a clean shirt. There is no more "me-time" - and your initial misgivings about paying a babysitter $10 an hour just so you can sit in a coffee shop and stare at a wall will turn to gleeful expectation as you and your two daughters clap with excitement when the babysitter shows up. And certainly in parenting there can be no modesty.

With two little ones on opposite nap schedules, if want to take a shower, one of them is coming in the bathroom with me. Megan has taken Clara into the shower with her but there's no way I'm doing that. So I usually wait for Clara to nap then I put Kate on the floor with some toys while I shower. But the first time I looked down to see Kate's face and two chubby hands pressed against the glass as she stared at me, all modesty flew out the window. To be honest, I was just glad she wasn't playing with the cold water knob on the bathtub, turning my shower into scalding torture.

The other day I walked into our bedroom after a shower with a towel around my waist. Clara ran in, pointed, and giggled out, "Daddy's boobies!" Now let me say that I am not the parent using the term "boobies" around my children. I can't wait to see the looks I get when she uses that word in public. I thought about explaining that on men, they're called "pecs" but who am I fooling, I'm a stay-at-home dad and haven't worked out in a long while. My next thought was how did she know it was funny to point out daddy's boobies? She didn't point out my knees or belly button. Maybe the love of all things silly is genetic, and she is in every way her mother's daughter. I could have told her not to use that word or point at people and giggle but to a two year old "don't do that" means the same as "please do that over and over." So what did I do? I shrugged and said, "yeah, Daddy's boobies."