Lessons In The Shaving Mug.

Last night as I finished cleaning the kitchen after dinner, Dylan quietly came in after his bath and told me that
he had cut himself with my razor. Sure enough, he takes his hand down to reveal a nick out of his chin.

I nearly started laughing, and told him that I would teach him in the morning how to properly shave.

"Why would you laugh at an 8 year old who sliced himself while playing unsupervised with a razor," you say?
I say, "cram it and keep reading".

This is the second such incident, the first was a little cut on his arm. The first time, he started out telling me that he cut himself on accident when he “wasn’t playing” with my razor, but just wanted to see if it would cut the hair on his arm. I told him then that I was proud that he told me and glad that he didn’t try to hide it. Last night I was even more proud when he didn’t try to cover anything at all and flat out said he cut his chin trying to shave. We cleaned him up and he wanted a band-aid instead of the old tried and true piece of toilet paper stuck to it. So he puts one on and climbs up in bed just in time for Kim to get home. She goes in and sees that he’s got the blanket cranked up to his nose, and knows something is up. After guessing that it was another tooth lost, she went right for the shaving attempt. He giggled and confessed yet again. So this morning we both lathered up with the mug and brush, and I gave him his first instruction on how to shave. Its funny, you don’t really think about it until you have to show someone else how to do it. The first challenge is getting over the mirror doing opposite of what you know your hand is doing, and after a few seconds of that, and some advice on not ever letting the blade slide sideways, he was shaving, making the goofy faces to tighten the skin and everything.
Between the shaving and stopping dead in his tracks when he came across a poster of a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model in Walmart, I’m beginning to suspect that the ladies will sooner than later be a huge factor in his life. If I’m totally honest with myself, I think they have been for at least a year now.
My point to this little post is that even though he doesn’t have a reason to shave, I want him to know the proper way to do it so that he doesn’t get hurt while letting his curiosity get the better of him, same reason that he knows how to swim even though we don’t have a pool. When the time comes for him to date, which he has already asked about, We will be the ones to make sure he knows the proper way to protect himself and his girlfriend. Some of you out there may think that the only way to do that is through abstinence, but some of you out there were never a teenage boy, and those of you who were know that its not a realistic expectation. Not even close. You can preach it and teach its benefits, but in the end he needs to know how to do it safely and when the day comes, I want him so prepared that he takes precaution as naturally as he buckles up when getting into the car. Planting the seeds of trust and being open when he comes to me with his mistakes will hopefully flower into the kind of relationship where we can talk openly about the hard issues that he is sure to face. Turning a blind eye to his natural instincts and preaching is only going to make me a grandfather before my time. Like everything, education and knowledge, not fear is what will protect him. And judging by his current awareness at 8, he is going to need to be well educated.