Any red-blooded American male, or their parent, can tell you boys are just grosser than girls. Boys like mud, worms, farts, to say the word “poop’, and even boogers.

Case in point: my two-year old son Michael.

Michael is perhaps the most affectionate and outgoing toddler I have ever encountered. Yes, I know you may think I am biased, since he came from these loins, but it’s just fact. The kid can talk to anyone and carry on a conversation for an hour even if the adult can’t understand everything coming out of his mouth. A two-year old’s developing brain doesn’t allow for perfect speech yet but that doesn’t deter Michael from spewing sentence upon sentence on unsuspecting strangers. The kid loves to share everything including his thoughts.

He also has found something new to share over the past few weeks. It’s something he often likes to share with his brothers and sister: his boogers.

We’re not sure how it started or why he’s gravitated toward picking his nose and wanting to share its gooey output with members of our family. We just know it’s the “in” thing for him right now. Toddlers are weird that way. They get fixated on things sometimes that make no sense or have no rhyme or reason to them. None of my other two older kids ever had a booger thing. They never wanted to pick their nose, eat it or share it. They just left the mucus alone.

Michael is his own boy. He’s a strong-willed kid (I blame that on being half Cuban) who has no problem forging his own path, even at this early age. He’s been through a lot the past year for a young child and I like to think God gave him this personality because he knew he’d have to be a fighter.

All that said, I don’t know what his fascination with these green, crusty droppings is. It’s bad enough having to tell your son to stop picking his nose. Hey, he’s two and when there’s something blocking his airway, the kid just sticks his digit up there and removes it. That makes sense – social graces be damned.

His Mom and I are perfectly comfortable continuing to tell him to leave his nose alone, knowing this whole booger fad will soon fade the way of other short-lived fixations. The only problem is, the problem escalated this past weekend. He’s now moved into a serious and dreaded place in the annals of Boogerdom: he’s now a booger eater.

It’s hard for me to air that in public but I must to help others who share our dismay. Little Michael has discovered these green meanies are a tasty – if not salty – treat. We’ve caught him a few times and prevented it. But this past Saturday, he was up to his mucus munching habit again. This time, he even said to my 12-year old: “Want a boogie? It tastes good.”

Besides his sister almost fainting, especially since he was chasing her around the house with the booger on the end of his finger, the rest of us had to laugh. Yes, it’s disgusting. But for those of us of the male persuasion, it’s hysterical. Even my wife had to laugh at the sheer brilliance of a two-year old taunting his much older sister with a booger on the end of his finger. That’s just pure, unabridged male hazing brilliance.

What can we say? Boys like boogers and my young son gets it from an early age. I know it won’t last much longer but while it does, I am going to relish the disgusting activity. We’ll continue to teach him the proper way of disposing of such nastiness at the same time or he may never have a date in high school.

Until then, I’ll keep laughing at my little booger-picker. I’m just happy he’s all-boy.

Follow Scott on Twitter @sdgully or email him at scott@everyotherthursday.com. His personal blog, where he writes about public relations and social media, is www.scottgulbransen.com. Scott also contributes the the Shamable Blog and is known as the Gluten Free Father and reviews GF food.

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