When Nobody’s Watching

What do you ponder when nobody is watching? When the family is going about their business or the kids have finally given up the fight and gone to sleep … where does your mind wander to and what does it wonder about?

My mind is a bit scattered (and fairly off-center). I tend to hang well with the “oh look, a chicken” crowd. It makes for some really interesting trains of thought. Most of these trains never leave the station and many really shouldn’t. People would worry. My status as an intellectual might encounter some doubt. *Wait, I’ve met my fair share of ”intellectuals”, I think I’d be fine.)

Here’s a prime example. The other day (OK, it might have been weeks ago now), Husband was commenting on why it is that young children pick their nose (and lamenting that Little Man is very much a young child in this regard). Yep, highbrow! It’s a bad habit and all kids go through it. Little Man struggles. BK has found her nose. It’ll be a while before we’re out of this germy world!

While I wholeheartedly agree that we should convince our children NOT to pick their noses, I had to take a  look at the whole thing from a practical and, perhaps, somewhat scientific perspective. Here’s what I came up with. I think you may start to wonder why this train left the station.

Wait for it. (…bated breath, I’d bet.)

The hypothesis I came up with is that we are actually supposed to pick our noses. Now before you click away and discount this as ridiculous (or contact someone for fear that I’ve lost it), I want you to find a small child and check out the proportions. I bet you find a finger and a nostril in perfect harmony. Check it out … works all the way up to adults!

On a whim the other day, I brought this whole business up to a good friend and he brought up a point I hadn’t thought of. Fingernails make excellent scraping devices. What’s the reason for sticking a finger in your nose? Hmmm … beginning to see my point?

Now, I’m not sure what this all means and I’m certainly not advocating that we all become radical proboscis miners. In fact, I’m fairly certain that I should move on to other, more productive, synapse works and leave this train in the round house. I just find it very intriguing that something we’ve classified and vile and disgusting (and germy in the extreme) might be part of the anatomical plan.

Mommyhood is so cool.

What will appear next on the road?  … hmmm … the road … oh, look, a chicken!