My 5 year old son is a bundle of laughter. Among many things, he is endless in his knock-knock jokes and his comedic body humor, falling and slipping at inopportune times. He is full of jokes and points out the the humorous side of things, always. At swim lessons, when it was time to get out of the pool, he would walk up a couple steps of the ladder and then slide down, like he couldn’t get out, dramatically falling back into the pool. His first attempt at tee ball was spent telling jokes to the kids on the bench and humorously shuffling between the bases… And his short stint at soccer was spent dodging into the other kids like it was football, with a smile on his face.

Yes. I have that kid.

The comedian.

The class clown.

The one always wanting to be the center of the laughter, fueled by its reaction.

The little boy so filled with curiosity that he doesn’t hesitate to do it or try it,even if it is something he saw in a television show.

Case in point: When I find out information from my son about school, it’s never when it happens. He doesn’t blurt it out the second he gets in the car. He tells you in bits and pieces, maybe while I’m preparing dinner, or drying him off after bath, but I am learning to always be open to what he has to say, or I may miss something.

Last night after bath time, which seems to be our conversation period of the day, he says, ” I don’t like time outs.” Why George? I asked. “Well, A (we’ll call him A) and I were playing with our lunch boxes like they were cars and I flung mine across the lunch room. I got a time out, outside for five minutes.” Ok. I thought, thanks for your honesty. Of course, I didn’t tell him that, but we talked about time outs and how important it is to listen.

Besides, I thought, he is so not the time out kid.

So this morning, while George was waiting to get into the building with his class, I saw his teacher, whom I love, by the way, and opened my big mouth, “So George told me he got a time out?” Oh yeah she said, and proceeded to tell me the story, of another time out time. “George took a handful of beans and put it down the back of another kid’s shirt, and then they started throwing them around at each other. I had beans’ on the floor for days.”

Gulp. And then she continued.

When I asked George why he put the beans down the back of the kids shirt, he said, “I wanted to see if they would make him itch.”

Double Gulp.

Sad thing is, I get it, jumping beans. But still, how do I talk to him about this? He didn’t misbehave or talk back, and it wasn’t malicious or harmful. It was curiosity taken a little out of control and to be honest, I could see his head ticking and where it was going.

Is this something I just have to let him learn on his own?

So we talked about limits. “It’s okay to be silly and have fun” I explained, “but when the teacher says stop, you stop. Just listen to the teacher”.

And so in typical George fashion, he responded, “So when my socks are slippery, and I am sliding all over the floor and I can get up” and he starts slipping and falling, very dramatically and humorously, then continued, ” And the teacher says stop. I stop?” Yes George. “Ok.”

End of discussion. For now. Let’s hope.