Violence as Hygiene Teaching Tool

As Logan and I walked back to the car—well, I walked and he dashed—we chatted about the various things he does quickly.

Logan: “Know what I do really fast?”
Me: “What’s that?”
Logan: “I wash my hands SO fast.”
Me: “Well, that may be one of those things you want to do slowly to be sure you do it well.”
Logan: “Why?”
Me: “Because sometimes it takes a little scrubbing to get all the dirt off, and when you just wave your hands under the water, you’re not really getting clean. Sometimes when we teach little kids to wash their hands, we tell them to sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and when they’re done singing, they know they’ve washed long enough.”
Logan: “Wow.”
Me:  “I know that seems like a long time, but sometimes you need to really scrub.”

[Cliff Clavenlike pause]

Me: “Wanna hear how that works?”
Logan: “Sure.”
Me: “OK. Picture this: soap and dirt stick together. And soap and water stick together. When you mix soap and water and make bubbles, the soap sticks to the dirt on your skin, and then when you rinse with water, the water sticks to the soap, which is sticking to the dirt, and it all washes away.”
Logan: “You mean it’s like a bad guy hanging onto a cliff, and a good guy comes along and hangs onto him, and then the tornado comes along and blows them both off the cliff?”
Me: “Exactly. That’s exactly it. Perfect analogy. You’re one smart cookie, you know that?”
Logan: “Heh. Yeah. They both go flying off the cliff. Heh.”

(And yes, I also launched into an explanation of what an analogy was. Nerd mommies, unite!)