I wrote this song with the help of the kids back around 1990. I had read an Ann Landers advice column as a child in which she came out firmly against tickling children without their permission, and I’d noticed that kids love to be tickled but they can be overstimulated. This song allows children to have a metered amount of tickling and then recaptures consent at the end of every verse, or the tickling STOPS. Grownups can obey boundaries! BODILY AUTONOMY.
Also, I played this song at the kids concert at the Polyamory Camping trip Katie and I went to in 2012. Someone with a degree in early childhood education said she thought it was the best song that was played that night because most adults simply never think about children outside their own convenience and management requirements. And yes, the adult entertainment came out afterward, and the kids went to sleep.
If I tickle tickle tickle
you will wiggle wiggle wiggle
and you’ll jiggle jiggle jiggle
and you’ll giggle giggle giggle
and then sometime sometime sometime
you will yell yell yell
PLEASE STOP
and I’ll stop, and you’ll say GO (or PLEASE GO)
If I tickle tickle tickle
you will wiggle wiggle wiggle
and you’ll jiggle jiggle jiggle
and you’ll giggle giggle giggle
and then sometime sometime sometime
you will yell yell yell
PLEASE STOP
and I’ll stop, and you’ll say STOP (or PLEASE STOP, or NO MORE)
