Grossness and how it relates to motherhood and writing

Grossness. It has a certain appeal, don't you think?

I mean, who doesn't at least appreciate the idea of Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy? Especially if you are a boy, or the parent of a boy.

When my boy was learning to read, all I had to do was write a sentence with the word "poop" in it to trick him into enjoying it. Reading, that is. Not poop. Yep, anything gross was delightfully hilarious.

Delightful little bits of grossness have gradually been making their way into my writing. I didn't notice it so much until recently, after drafting my third picture book story that somehow involves a character doing and/or eating something foul.

So why now? It's not because I've finally realized grossness sells. If it were that, I would have written these three stories years ago. No, I think this just shows another way my children have impacted my writing. They've helped me re-realize that grossness really is funny!

Not that I'm going to volunteer to drink snot juice or anything like that any time soon.