"If your tummy says no then your mouth should say no too."

This very sweet, sincere, and quite profound statement was uttered by my darling friend to her 4 year old son just yesterday. The story goes like this:
Son and his friend were upstairs playing. Mama heard water running so she went up to investigate. Kids were about to give stuffed kitties a 'bath' in the sink. Mama said ,"No, the stuffed kitties don't need a bath." (I almost used that as today's quote). Son tries to reason with mama and explain to her that yes indeed the kitties did want to take a bath. Mama ends discussion and heads back downstairs.
Time passes, friend leaves and mama goes back upstairs. She walks by bathroom, glances in and notices a rug over the sink. Curious, she lifts a corner only to find two soaked kitties in a drained sink. She calmly beckons son to bathroom and asks for an explanation. They talk for a bit then she asks him if he thought the whole thing was a good idea. "Well, uh..... " he trails off, muttering an explanation under his breath. What's that buddy? "Well, deep deep down in my tummy I knew it wasn't okay." That's when she kissed his sweet dimpled cheeks, looked into his clear blue eyes and offered those wonderful words of wisdom.