No pain, no gain.

Yesterday was the first time I've gone running since my first fainting spell in February and, boy, do I ache today. It's amazing how quickly the body falls into disrepair from a short exercise break. However, the good news is I was able to do my normal run without feeling overly exhausted. I had an interesting conversation yesterday with my friend about little boys and their "weiners," as my daughter would put it.

One of her sons is five or six and probably very slightly autistic (although she would never want to put that word on him). We've spent a lot of time talking about some of the challenges she's had with her son over the last few years because they are very similar to problems experienced by my sister and her younger son, who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, which means he's very mildly autistic. Anyway, my friend mentioned how every morning her son wakes up with a boner that he usually attempts to take care of in exactly the way you'd expect a boy to take care of it. She mentioned that this sort of activity has been a pretty regular thing for this particular son for as long as he's been aware of it. I asked her if his penis is somewhat larger than one would expect in a boy that age and she said yes. I told her that this is something that also happens with my nephew and that he's a pretty enthusiastic monkey spanker, according to my sister. In fact, I explained that my sister's pediatrician told her that larger than normal sexual organs and drive are quite common in children with autistic tendencies.

The brunt of the story is that both my friend and sister realize they can't stop what's going on, so both basically encourage their boys to at least take care of business in private. My friend went on to say that yesterday morning had been funny, though, because she kept calling up for her son to come down and get ready for school but he kept yelling down with reasons why he had to stay upstairs, so she finally went up and he was under his blanket taking care of business and she finally asked him if his "privates" were giving him a problem and he said yes. She asked if he'd been rubbing it and he said yes, and then asked if she wanted to rub it for him. She replied, "NO! No, I don't want to rub it for you."

Then another mother we'd been talking to told us about a child in one of her children's class who has been very public about her "business" since kindgergarten and that that child's mother is somewhat upset with the school for not working with her on this entire subject. Meaning she doesn't understand why the teachers get so bent out of shape with the problem and don't just turn a blind eye. The point is, there's nothing wrong with the behavior, but that doesn't mean you can do it any ole place you want and that's basically what the teachers are trying to get the mother to teach her child. Basically, to make the girl understand there's a proper place and time for everything and school is not the right place to be masturbating in front of everyone. Although, because it is a girl and it's been behavior displayed at such a young age, I said it would make me wonder if there's been any history of abuse. This other mother asked what we would do if it were our child and I said I'd try to explain to my daughter that these are our private parts so that means what we do with them takes place in private, too. What else can you do? You don't want the kid to feel guilty about what they're doing, but they've got to know what's appropriate and what's not. There's nothing wrong with singing at the top of your lungs, but let's face it, people aren't going to let you do it anytime, anyplace.