Jen Warman: New Freakin' Mummy

Jul
19
2012

The Circumcision Debate

WOULD YOU FOREGO THE FORESKIN?

Let's just dive right into this controversial topic, shall we?

 
To circumcise or not to circumcise—that is the question.
 
My husband and I disagreed about this for my entire pregnancy: I was on team "leave my baby's penis alone" and he was on team "I want my son to look like me." I was secretly hoping for a girl just so we didn't have to decide ;)
 
It was the ONE THING we could not agree on. And well...guess what? We had a boy! 
 
All of the sudden I wished I was Jewish. "We're doing it for religious reasons." End of conversation. Whenever you answer someone with that line, that person shuts up. No one wants to offend your religion. 
 
"Why are you eating more cake Jen?" 
"It's for religious reasons."
"Oh, okay."
 
See what I mean? And I've always FELT a little Jewish. I like the idea of not mixing milk with meat, and I love bagels (I just googled "bagels + jewish people" to see if that comment was racist, by the way).
 
ANYWAY, back to the foreskin: let's cut to the chase (pun intended) and you can judge me all you want, but we decided to circumcise our son. 
 
*insert gasp of judgement here*
 
We had a pro and con list for each, here are the pro's:
 
PRO UN-CIRCUMCISED PENIS
-stays in it's natural form, the way it came into this world
-it's deemed medically unnecessary
-you don't have to pay $$ to get it done
-more sensitive penis
-you can nickname your penis snuffleupagus
 
PRO CIRCUMCISED PENIS
-you don't need to worry about cleaning beneath foreskin/junk building up
-you don't need to worry about the skin tearing and needing to get it done later in life when it'll hurt more and you'll remember it
-less chance of contracting/transmitting STIs (just always use a condom and you don't need to worry about this either way, I'm sure)
-If the Dad is circumcised you can happily pee together and have twin penises. Wahoo. Helmut warriors UNITE!!!
 
There are many more pros you could add to each of these lists, but at the end of the day—I joined team circumcision.
 
It's actually kind of funny, because in the hospital room the day that Cole was born, my husband actually said "I've decided I'm okay not to circumcise." And I looked at him and laughed, "I have actually decided I'm okay to circumcise!" So we left it to a coin toss (kidding).
 
Anyway, I hope Cole is happy with our decision later in life. I hope that he doesn't get teased in the locker room due to his lack of foreskin. I suppose I could crochet him a little hood for his penis if this is the case. People do that, right?
 
Please follow me on Etsy for future penis-inspired crafts...
 
;)
 
(JK—I don't have an Etsy account. But I WAS a penis for Halloween one year...and a vagina the next. I made my own costumes and everything. More on that later...)