Beware the 4 year old boy.

Muffin is four years old, and has entered that stage I had been warned about.
("he's only a year old, but every time I change his diaper, his hand goes right down!" "just wait until he's four, giggle giggle")
First it was just undressing after using the potty, and running out yelling, "I'm Naked Penis Man!!"
Then I get a call from his day care. Apparently he's trying his hardest to discover what the girls have. And he's also letting everyone see what he has. He's also grabbed a girl's bottom while she was changing.
I talked to him about it.
"You need to stop trying to see your friend's private parts." I told him.
"Why?" he answered.
"Muffin, when you are a grown up, and you and {little girlfriend} get married, then you can see her naked all you want. Trust me, it'll be a lot more interesting then anyway."
"Mama," he says, quite seriously, "I think it's really interesting now."

I know at this age, it's more curiosity than anything, but what can I do? He doesn't have a sister so he's really never seen girl parts before. And it's not like I can go and ask his friend's moms if they'd let him have a look. I had a younger brother, we took baths together when I was 4 and 5, and he was 1 and 2. So I'd seen what boys had, it wasn't that interesting to me, because I saw it all the time.
So I found a book. It's called "Amazing you! Getting smart about your private parts" .
It has illustrations and explanations of boy parts and girl parts, and I think it is very age appropriate.
We bought it last night, and read it several times. I told him it is HIS book, he can look at it any time he wants to, and ask us any questions he has about it, and we will read it to him any time.

He of course, wanted to bring it to school.
"I want to show my friends about the vagina!" I tried to explain it is his friends' parents' job to talk to them about private parts.

I also told him the four rules about private parts:
1. You do not touch your private parts around other people.
2. You do not show your private parts to anyone.
3. You do not touch your friend's private parts.
4. You do not let anyone touch your private parts.

We are working very hard on these points with him, but he's such a shame-free child. Unfortunately, he could run into the wrong kind of adult who would take advantage of this. I don't want that. I want him to be proud of his body, and take pleasure in it, but in an appropriate manner. I want him to RESPECT his body, and his friends' bodies.
One of his teachers hadn't worked with this age group before, and the poor girl was shocked...she didn't know how to approach me. She talked to the director about it, and the director called me. Incidentally, one of the little girls whose pants he'd tried to pull down, was the director's daughter. Yeah. But she has a son a little older, so she knew what four year old boys are like. I knew, I'd baby sat my share, and they were the ones who'd try to open the door when you were peeing, or look under the stalls in the dressing rooms or bathrooms, or look up your skirt, or lift their mommy's skirts up.
As I put it to a friend, you tell them they can't do it, they wonder what the fuss is. You tell them they can't have candy, and they know that'sgreat, so perhaps we're just keeping something awesome secret.
Can't tell him it will be awesome someday, but right now, it's just not.

So now we will keep reading this book, and keep talking about the "Private Parts Rules", and hope it sinks in before he gets labeled the "preschool pervert".