I get a kick out of boys. I really do. My days are largely spent trying to convince 13 year old boys that schoolwork is an important component of their lives. (The majority of learning disabled kids are boys). I enjoy their enthusiasm for all things dirty, dangerous or leading to disaster. I enjoy their devil-may-care attitude that is a lot more swagger than substance. I appreciate their belief that all things can be fixed with enough courage and confidence.
In fact, just the other day, my school printer got jammed beyond belief. Luckily, I had a class of boys at the time. All ten of them crowded around the machine offering their opinions.
Open this, open that.
Pull this, pull that.
Its right here, it's over there.
We need a screw driver. We need to take apart this.
I let them have at it. (Stopping them only when the consensus was that complete disassembly was the only option). I figure that boys need the chance to work out problems. To fix things. To become men.
Unless of course my daughters are involved.
Then I just want to put them in the dirt.
With my bare hands.
Soon after the printer incident, Lauren came home crying from school. After determining that she was physically OK, I began to question her. Two boys in her class had been tormenting her. One had thrown a ball at her head and called her "evil", while the other boy laughed and told her she was dumb. This isn't new. These boys have been picking on her off and on for a year now. I've offered to call her teacher, call the principal and call Aunt Michelle (the LIBRARIAN). I've even offered to send her big brother down to recess. But in third grade tattling is a capital offense. So Lauren just has chosen to suck it up and deal with it. I've had to break it to her that sometimes boys do things like that to get a pretty girl's attention. Especially when those boys are in third grade.
The thought of that fills her with utter and complete disgust.
The very same day, Syd came home from her softball game in complete disgust. A boy had just texted her to say, "You suck!" That morning the same boy had written on her book, "You are retarded and you smell." (I can assure you that neither is true...) She was irritated and wanted to punch him in the nose. Especially because it is known about the school that this boy likes her. A lot. So it seems that the third grade mentality is alive and well in high school. Come to think of it, when I was pregnant with Cade, Ryan thought it was funny to call me "Sweaty" instead of "Sweetie" during those long summer months.
I am happy to report that as he gets closer to forty, Ryan no longer calls me irritating names, thinking that he is funny. Probably because I would punch him in the nose. But my poor girls...they still will have to endure those boys...
5 comments:
Tell me who the boys are tormenting Lauren and I can make recess hell for them. No one messes with my Lauren!
Boys, boys, boys!
I hope your girls can hang in there and I did laugh at what Ryan said -- that fully deserves a punch in the nose!
Oh & I love the protective aunt!!
Can't live with them, can't live without them. So I guess you gotta love 'um (unless they're mean to your daughters. In that case-- punch away!)
Im a little freaked out now being a mother of all boys. I better watch for the signs I dont want to be one of those mothers that never thinks that it is her child. I hope if my boys every act like I know about it so I can punch them in the nose myself, well at least correct the behavior.
Oh, yes, the fun of boys, and the even more fun of girls having to deal with them. I loved the first part of your post, with letting them figure things out to make them into men. The second part of your post makes me want to throw them to the dirt with you.
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