Circumcision

As opposed to our culture’s systemic (and taboo) pederasty. Yes, we modern types have some solid ground to judge other folks on, eh? :slight_smile:

Rather than approving/disapproving of female genital mutilation, or Etoro pederasty, I think it comes down to this: since we have never experienced an intact family culture with a sustainable connection to the Land, we have no sane measure to judge another culture by. How about that for cultural relativism?

Even if it EVER became our business to judge and police other cultures, we have no tools to do so, as a culture. We don’t even know how to disagree without starting a war.

In our culture, we conflate conflict with violence, and intimacy with sex. Crying and mewing like preemies imprisoned within clear plastic boxes that number in the billions, and that stretch to the horizon, I find our opinions on just about anything suspect and irrelevant, as long as it doesn’t involve the immediate and pressing need of dealing with our own rended souls and families, our tiny little lungs and hearts starved for the oxygen of real human experiences that create whole people.

My husband and I decided not to circumsize. Now my 3 year old is having issues with infections that are painful. Apparently his foreskin is not retracting as much as it should and it is easy for bacteria to get stuck. We bathe him and are very clean people, so this was in no way our fault. Now he needs to get circumsized at 3. I’m not saying everyone should, I wouldn’t judge anyone for the desisions they make with thier children, most people want to do the right thing for thier kids. I just want to make it known infections aren’t rare and only happen to people who don’t clean. I’m just saying I think there are real reasons to consider it, not just because most people are doing it. I don’t even know how to begin to explain to my son what the doctor is going to do to him this week and I wish we had done it in the beginning.

My husband and I decided not to circumsize. Now my 3 year old is having issues with infections that are painful. Apparently his foreskin is not retracting as much as it should and it is easy for bacteria to get stuck. We bathe him and are very clean people, so this was in no way our fault. Now he needs to get circumsized at 3. I'm not saying everyone should, I wouldn't judge anyone for the desisions they make with thier children, most people want to do the right thing for thier kids. I just want to make it known infections aren't rare and only happen to people who don't clean. I'm just saying I think there are real reasons to consider it, not just because most people are doing it. I don't even know how to begin to explain to my son what the doctor is going to do to him this week and I wish we had done it in the beginning.

Has anybody else here had experiences similar to this? I know Daniel (He is 8) hasn’t had any problems so far.

ON EDIT: I asked my wife Annie about this as she has done ALOT of research on the subject and here are her thoughts:

"Hi, I’m sorry your son is going through painful infections. I just want to add a word of caution here though. Make very sure your doctors are not just jumping on circumcision as your only option as they tend to do this. They make a good deal of money off of this operation that is not covered by insurance. Foreskins can take many years to fully retract even up to 18 years. My son is 8 and his is still not fully retracted and he has had no infections. The penis (under the foreskin) should never be washed with soap. It is too caustic and can cause pain. Instead any amount of retracted foreskin should just be pulled back and rinsed with water. With an unretracted foreskin you can still pull back as much as possible, be careful to not pull to the point of pain and ripping, and rinsed with water. Soap can cause pain down there believe it or not.

Also, if you REALLY do NEED to circumcise him now at the age of three be glad its now and not as an infant. They can use painkillers for him now at the age of 3 that they could not use and birth. Birth circumcision is not just painfull it’s barbaric. The doctors CAN NOT use strong enough painkillers when babies are just that young, they can only use topicals. With the amount of pain caused by the circumcision at birth, topicals don’t work enough. Now that he is 3 they can safely use injectable pain relief. No matter how you explain this to him it WILL be better for him this way. It would be better actually that you were able to find a different solution. Please make sure your doctor has done everything else first. This is permanent.

Curt

debbiejo–
I gotta jump in again with my story! Arond the time of pregnancy & birth, I discovered that the range of “normal” varies way more than the conventional medical establishment tells us, based on real stories from people I know. We decided not to circumcise as well, with no related troubles at all.

My son takes a bath once or twice a week, and we don’t generally use soap. To update my previous posts on this–at four and a half, nearly five, he called me into the bathroom while peeing and pointed out excitedly that his penis “looks different now!” His foreskin retracts. ;D

Also, I have a lovely (not) scar from a doc with a knife “core sampling” something that went away on its own. Cutting becomes part of the story of your body for the rest of your life. I’d rather have scars with more interesting stories. :o :wink:

Your mothering sounds cool to me, Yarrow Dreamer! Unfortunatly, I didn’t have that sort of treatment. I guess over time the scar disappeared, which causes me to not mind so much, but the fact of loosing the skin to grow more with unnerves me some and makes me feel pressed to seek helms and shields to block the unexpected surprises I get from the crazy exposure of sensitiveness my parents decided to maim me with 303 moons ago.