Kids are just so much fun. Juss said the above line two days ago. I thought it was hilarious.
Today at the pool I met a lovely woman who has seven kids. Two of hers, four of his, one of theirs. Not all of them live with her all the time, but I still admired her aplomb.
We sat, the two of us, and discussed how boys are their own type of creatures, different from ordinary humans: how they will go back to a monster or a truck, no matter what toy is offered. How the politically correct idea of boys and girls being the same and trained by environment is bunk, and how many mom’s we’ve met who have expressed the same thought in surprise.
In this case, however, it is her husband who is learning. She has an older boy and girl, but he has four girls, so their little boy is a whole new ball park.
She expressed great sympathy when she found out that I had three boys. I was gratified.
I was also gratified to discover that the owner of the farm where the Cherubim rides had not noticed that he was autistic — she called me when she saw it on his camp application. She’ s seen him riding but not in the barn. But still, made me feel kind of good.
That’s the best kind of compliment, isn’t it. :D
Been living the insane life for the past few weeks, so I haven’t had the chance to read the book yet. But I’ve got a couple days of enforced idleness on the way, so it’s at the top of the list.
Big hugs,
Jean Marie
*grin* I can’t wait to have kids….
On a side note: thought of you the other day– or rather, your icon; there’s a lovely little Indian buffet that just opened up, and instead of music they have a big screen TV that is playing (I’m presuming the family’s, since the lady who popped out once or twice to talk to the waiter/teller/busboy/everything was pretty obviously his mother) collection of music videos, and I’m 99% sure one of them was the very one you pointed me towards to explain your pic, lo so many months ago.
Most likely. She’s everywhere. If it was really beautiful and glitsy, that was probably it. ;-)
But they were ALL beautiful and glitzy, even the one that looked like it was trying to retell a 40s gangster movie!
That’s the best kind of compliment, isn’t it. :D
Been living the insane life for the past few weeks, so I haven’t had the chance to read the book yet. But I’ve got a couple days of enforced idleness on the way, so it’s at the top of the list.
Big hugs,
Jean Marie
Yes, indeed. At the same age the girl was totally into fashion dolls, makeup, and boy band music. The boy prefers adventure toys, building and action-oriented computer games.
However, that being said, the boy’s the caretaker who likes cooking and cleaning while the girl–who also likes to cook, but only for herself–exhibits often more fearless behavior and at the same age the boy is now adored Tomb Raider.
In my own childhood, my sister was the fearless one while I played sniper games during recess. Neither of us so much cared for Barbie dolls. I think I had 2, discreetly spaced over a several year period.
I very much wanted to be a boy when I was a kid. I was so envious of my brother’s Cub Scout experience and did all types of rough and tumble things. I played much more with animal toys than my one or two barbies.
But I still loved looking at the Barbie pictures in the Sears and Roebuck catalog! ;-)
I think it’s very important to allow each child to develop as they wish to, and often girls enjoy ‘boy’ activities and visa versa. However, the modern idea that they are just the same and only the fact that they were given different toys as a child has made them different really doesn’t pan out with many little boys.
I think when it gets really odd is when parents refuse to let boys play with masculine toys such as guns and swords and refuse to give girls pretty dolls (though not necessarily slutty–I was a Skipper fan) when they ask for them.
There used to be a set of smaller fashion dolls named after the first in the series: Dawn. They were beautiful, not so voluptuous and quite inexpensive. We loved them! I think they have been reissued by another company.
http://collectdolls.about.com/library/weekly/aa091501aa.htm
*grin* I can’t wait to have kids….
On a side note: thought of you the other day– or rather, your icon; there’s a lovely little Indian buffet that just opened up, and instead of music they have a big screen TV that is playing (I’m presuming the family’s, since the lady who popped out once or twice to talk to the waiter/teller/busboy/everything was pretty obviously his mother) collection of music videos, and I’m 99% sure one of them was the very one you pointed me towards to explain your pic, lo so many months ago.
Yes, indeed. At the same age the girl was totally into fashion dolls, makeup, and boy band music. The boy prefers adventure toys, building and action-oriented computer games.
However, that being said, the boy’s the caretaker who likes cooking and cleaning while the girl–who also likes to cook, but only for herself–exhibits often more fearless behavior and at the same age the boy is now adored Tomb Raider.
In my own childhood, my sister was the fearless one while I played sniper games during recess. Neither of us so much cared for Barbie dolls. I think I had 2, discreetly spaced over a several year period.
How the politically correct idea of boys and girls being the same and trained by environment is bunk…
I used to teach preschool (specifically three-year-olds.) We had all the politically correct toys, yet my boys always created guns with the Legos and ran around shooting each other. When I made them stop, I would find them later biting one corner off a saltine cracker and making those into guns.
*smile* I have a boy of my own, who’s sweet and gentle and not at all aggressive, yet loves to “practice” against a tree with his wooden sword. I wouldn’t trade him for all the world.
Still chuckling over the saltines!
I thought my eldest son summed up the whole boy outlook at the age of three when he shouted out with glee something about (I forget the original context.)
“Hopping and dancing and fighting!”
I would never have thought of fighting as an activity that went with hopping and dancing, but he certainly did. It reminds me of the song from the musical Shanandoah: “Next to loving, I like fighting. I like fighting, it’s exciting!”
*laughing* I can so relate. I tried to keep guns away from my son for awhile, but he would make Lego guns, point a crayon at someone and say he was shooting them – he could turn pretty much anything into a gun. :)
I didn’t have any toy guns growing up. I always ended up making them out of legos or tinker toys (more often tinker toys, because they were more sturdy than the lego guns). Gotta love tinker toys (do kids still get to enjoy them, these days?)! Being the avid scifi fan I was, I pretended that they were laser pistols, and not your average gun, and I always fought aliens…go figure. I also had my fair share of stick swords, bow staffs, etc… Those were the days.
(and of course, with my dad as a member of the NRA, I graduated to real guns as a teen for hunting. I still remember those cold mornings getting up at 5:00 AM and sitting in a deer blind for several hours.)
I love hearing about your boys. They really are different creatures, and such fun to watch and read about.
How the politically correct idea of boys and girls being the same and trained by environment is bunk…
I used to teach preschool (specifically three-year-olds.) We had all the politically correct toys, yet my boys always created guns with the Legos and ran around shooting each other. When I made them stop, I would find them later biting one corner off a saltine cracker and making those into guns.
*smile* I have a boy of my own, who’s sweet and gentle and not at all aggressive, yet loves to “practice” against a tree with his wooden sword. I wouldn’t trade him for all the world.
Most likely. She’s everywhere. If it was really beautiful and glitsy, that was probably it. ;-)
I very much wanted to be a boy when I was a kid. I was so envious of my brother’s Cub Scout experience and did all types of rough and tumble things. I played much more with animal toys than my one or two barbies.
But I still loved looking at the Barbie pictures in the Sears and Roebuck catalog! ;-)
I think it’s very important to allow each child to develop as they wish to, and often girls enjoy ‘boy’ activities and visa versa. However, the modern idea that they are just the same and only the fact that they were given different toys as a child has made them different really doesn’t pan out with many little boys.
Still chuckling over the saltines!
I thought my eldest son summed up the whole boy outlook at the age of three when he shouted out with glee something about (I forget the original context.)
“Hopping and dancing and fighting!”
I would never have thought of fighting as an activity that went with hopping and dancing, but he certainly did. It reminds me of the song from the musical Shanandoah: “Next to loving, I like fighting. I like fighting, it’s exciting!”
I think when it gets really odd is when parents refuse to let boys play with masculine toys such as guns and swords and refuse to give girls pretty dolls (though not necessarily slutty–I was a Skipper fan) when they ask for them.
There used to be a set of smaller fashion dolls named after the first in the series: Dawn. They were beautiful, not so voluptuous and quite inexpensive. We loved them! I think they have been reissued by another company.
http://collectdolls.about.com/library/weekly/aa091501aa.htm
But they were ALL beautiful and glitzy, even the one that looked like it was trying to retell a 40s gangster movie!
Yep, boys and girls are definitely different. My girls like to play with dolls, my son likes to play with cars. If my son picks up a doll, chances are good that that doll is going to be shooting someone soon. When my neighbor commented on how little her son plays with stuffed animals, I realized that my son rarely does, too, although my girls play with them regularly.
I have three sons. The older one likes monsters and robots. The middle one likes Thomas the Tank Engine. The youngest one is easy, he’ll play with either.
Transformers were the only toy they all wanted to play with when they were little…robot and car!
I find that what all three of my kids play with the most consistently (and my Dad has said this was true of me and my six siblings when we were little, too) is Legos. (Well, I think what we have are Duplos and an even bigger version, but same idea. I would be getting them the regular size Legos if I wasn’t expecting another baby who will be going through the stick-everything-in-his-mouth phase in another half year or so.) Anyhow, Legos are very cool.
My kids love them, too…though not the little ones as much. They have trouble with them.
You can make quite a few dinosaurs using the big Mega Blocks!
I love hearing about your boys. They really are different creatures, and such fun to watch and read about.
*laughing* I can so relate. I tried to keep guns away from my son for awhile, but he would make Lego guns, point a crayon at someone and say he was shooting them – he could turn pretty much anything into a gun. :)
Yep, boys and girls are definitely different. My girls like to play with dolls, my son likes to play with cars. If my son picks up a doll, chances are good that that doll is going to be shooting someone soon. When my neighbor commented on how little her son plays with stuffed animals, I realized that my son rarely does, too, although my girls play with them regularly.
I have three sons. The older one likes monsters and robots. The middle one likes Thomas the Tank Engine. The youngest one is easy, he’ll play with either.
Transformers were the only toy they all wanted to play with when they were little…robot and car!
I find that what all three of my kids play with the most consistently (and my Dad has said this was true of me and my six siblings when we were little, too) is Legos. (Well, I think what we have are Duplos and an even bigger version, but same idea. I would be getting them the regular size Legos if I wasn’t expecting another baby who will be going through the stick-everything-in-his-mouth phase in another half year or so.) Anyhow, Legos are very cool.
My kids love them, too…though not the little ones as much. They have trouble with them.
You can make quite a few dinosaurs using the big Mega Blocks!
I didn’t have any toy guns growing up. I always ended up making them out of legos or tinker toys (more often tinker toys, because they were more sturdy than the lego guns). Gotta love tinker toys (do kids still get to enjoy them, these days?)! Being the avid scifi fan I was, I pretended that they were laser pistols, and not your average gun, and I always fought aliens…go figure. I also had my fair share of stick swords, bow staffs, etc… Those were the days.
(and of course, with my dad as a member of the NRA, I graduated to real guns as a teen for hunting. I still remember those cold mornings getting up at 5:00 AM and sitting in a deer blind for several hours.)