Side Effects

Most of the time, I am sooo grateful I have boys.  But there are times when I'm not sure I have enough knowledge to really see them through everything they will deal with.

Mason asked me the other day what the "side effects" of puberty are.  Side effects?  What side effects?  I drew a blank.  So I start going into the whole "your penis gets bigger, you get hair, your testicles get bigger" conversation.  He looks at me like I've gone insane.  "Not that!  Ewwww.  I mean side effects."  Okay, I'm at a loss.  Do I really know the answer to this one? 

Then he says, "Well, a friend told me that one side effect is that you get nose bleeds." Hahahahah.  Oh, okay.  I get it.  His poor friend must have gotten a nose bleed, was horribly embarrassed and decided to tell his friends that he's going through puberty, and that's one of the side effects.  Oh my.  Poor kid.

But I realized that this could be a defining moment.  Where your child comes to you for information, instead of his friends, and he is actually needing an answer.  Yikes.  I proceeded to tell him that I was very glad he came to me instead of just believing whatever his friends tell him, and that if I didn't have the answer, I would be honest and say, "I don't know.  But I will find the answer for you."  Because, most of the time, I don't know.  I have no idea. 

And I told him, "I don't know.  But I don't believe there are any side effects.  But if I find out differently, I will let you know."  I told Kevin about this whole conversation.  His answer?  "Side effect?  How about having raging hormones?"  Yeah.  If our poor child is anything like his parents, that will be a definite side effect.  But that's a completely different conversation.  lol