finger pointing: nature or nurture?

I wonder if the human tendency to deny an activity is programmed from potty training time.  Many times we have funny exchanges about the state of the diaper:

“Is your diaper wet?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“No.”

Or one of my recent favorites:

“Honey, do you need a new diaper?”
“No.”
“It smells like you might need a new diaper, let Mommy check.”
“No, it was just a little gas.” (dirty diaper, of course!)

I now have a new favorite, courtesy of a friend with two-year old twins:

Twin1: “Twin2 stinky yucky”
Mom: “T1 is T2 stinky?”
T1: “Yes” (Mom checks T2′s diaper and nothing)
Mom: “T1 are YOU stinky yucky?”
T1: “Noooooo, T2 stinky yucky” (Mom checks T1 and yep, it’s her)

Hum…It seems that we also start pointing the finger at a young age as well. Maybe I should dig out my old psychology books from college and see what they say on the matter.

a funny side of potty training

After an aborted attempt at potty training before the second birthday our little Jellybean has expressed an interested in wearing ‘big girl panties’.  The nanny and I have been working on it for a total of two days now and yesterday they picked out pretty ‘big girl panties’. 

Imagine my surprise when when I came home last night and I found JB sitting on our bed playing Elmo Loves ABC’s on the iPad and had her father proudly proclaim our daughter was wearing panties and not a diaper!  

In shock I replied, “while sitting on our bed?!”  He calmly stated that everything was okay and besides, she was on my side of the bed.  HA!  The only thing more shocked than the look on my face was the look on his when he picked her up to find she had soaked all the way down through two blankets, a comforter, sheets, and a mattress cover!

This morning, while we are still washing the soiled linens from last night, JB proclaims she wants to wear her big girl panties and read a book in bed with Mommy and Daddy (our Saturday morning ritual).  I reminded her what happened the last time she was in our bed without a diaper and she thought about it for a minute before saying “I wash sheets and wear panties”.

I love the way the mind of a two-year old works!