Submitted by Becca in AR (You can read more from Becca by visiting here.)
Boys are all I know now. We have two nieces whom we love, but there’s a huge difference in nieces we see a lot and sons that we live with. I don’t want to make huge gender stereotypes based on those situations. However, based solely on my own experience as a girl, I’m pretty sure the following conversation would have gone much differently if my kids were girls.
Will: Cy, no hit!
Cy: (silence)
Will: Do you need a time out?
C: Nooooooooo
Will: Well, then stop acting like that.
(a second or two of silence passed as Will let Cy really think about what he had done)
Will: Let’s race.
I love it. It made me want to see if they would re-enact it for me so that I could get it on video and remember it forever. I don’t think that would have worked. Will was completely calm and assertive (I’ve been watching the Dog Whisperer), and Cy answered as though Will actually had the authority to put him in a time out. Based on my own girl-ness, I’m pretty sure that it would have been completely different if they were girls and would not have ended with an invitation for competition. Nor would it have ended so quickly. We’re annoying like that. We just can’t. let. it. go. We have a lot of things going for us—I think about those things a lot when I’m breaking up the 287th fight of the day between the boys—but getting over something in 1.2 seconds is just not one of them. I should learn from them. My life would be easier. The next time someone makes me mad, I should just headbutt her, wait a few seconds (or let her kick me– either works well), then ask her if she wants to race me to Target in our matching Tahoes.
[...] Boys Will Be Boys | Experiencing Motherhood [...]