Raising Boys (Points 6-10)

This is the 2nd part of a 4 part series where I compare this article to my real life experience with raising boys.  Mind you, I'm only 3 years into this journey, so I know there's still a lot to learn and a lot more to experience.  I can't wait.
Please share with me your take on these points!  Do you find them to be true?  Do you think that girls are way different, or are the pretty much alike?  I'd love to hear from you!
Here's the first 5 points, in case you missed it...

6. You'll Learn to Love Legos
Actually, this one is not true for me yet.  Maybe it will be one day... if I learn how to contain them.  But as of right now, we have one set of big (generic brand) legos that are mostly all either lost behind the couch or hiding out wherever all the lost socks are.  If I could trust that my boys wont just dump the bucket of legos on the floor, kick at them for 3 minutes and then walk away, maybe I'd allow it.  But I can't!  Because that's exactly what they do.  They'll play with it for about 2 minutes... assemble a few... pretend it's a horn or a space ship... then SMASH IT and kick it under the couch.  Legos and I do not have a loving relationship.

7.  Roughhousing is Innate
I can see how this is true for Marco.  He loves to get playfully shoved in the face, or held down for tickles.  He also wants to do that to us.  The problem lies when BOTH boys do not particularly enjoy roughhousing.  Jonas likes it, but he has his limits... and Marco doesn't understand where that line is.  Jonas is also very moody, so sometimes he'll be rolling on the ground with Marco and then sometimes if Marco just lays a hand on him, he'll begin to wail.  You just never know.  The main problem is that Jonas never comes out the victor in their roughhousing games.  Jonas is always overthrown or pinne down by big brother.  Hopefully once Jonas gets a little bigger, stronger and heavier, he'll be a better contender for Marco and it'll level the playing field.

8.  You'll Want to Mold Him into a Steller Boyfriend
Mauricio works on this with Marco more than I do.  He's always telling him to "go help your mom" or "don't say that to your mom" or "be nice".  I appreciate that, because I know that if they learn to be kind to ME, that it'll bleed over to all women.  We don't have very many girl friends for Marco to play with.  We have a few and to those, I try to teach him to let them go first, to be gentle with them and to be kind.  So far we haven't had any issues!  This will be a long lesson, I'm sure.

9.  The Goofiness Starts Early
In the article, it talks about "potty humor" as the "goofiness".  Thankfully we haven't started that yet, although with boys, it is inevitable.  They are goofy still, but in a more innocent way.  For them, the funniest thing they can do to each other is... spit.  But not spit in a gross way... like they're not hocking a loogie at each other... yet.  They blog raspberries in each other's faces and crack up... or they spit out bath water at each other.  Jonas just thinks this is hilarious.  Like, fall-over-laughing funny.  They're goofy and it's fun to watch!

10. Even Sweet-as-Pie Boys Love Guns
This is something that has fascinated me.  We don't have any toy guns and we don't watch any violent tv, but one time, Marco picked up a wrapping paper roll and pointed it at me and went "pshew pshew".  Huh?  How did he know?!  When I asked him what he was doing, he told me that he was Spiderman shooting his webs at me.  Ok, so he still doesn't "know" what guns are, but he does know how to exhibit violent manly behavior.  Once we were at a friends house and her son was playing with Star Wars light sabers... he was aiming it at Marco, poised to fight, and Marco looked at me and said, "look Mom, we're going fishing"!  He thought it was a fishing pole!  Regardless, whether it's actually guns, or swords or just Spiderman webs, they know, like it's built into their souls, how to be a fighter.  It's not necessarily a bad thing, but absolutely something we have to teach them... "With great power comes great responsibility" and they have to "Use their powers for good and not evil".  We've got to build up the good guys to fight off the bad guys!

1 comments:

Helo said...

Hi!Hi my dear niece Nicki ....

It's amazing the way you report your beautiful stories about his life, his children ... I am very proud of you and thank God for putting you in the life of Maurice, and that He has placed you, my niece, in my life too!
I love the stories about children and I admire how you understand it as a wonderful mother!
When you ask someone to comment on things they do, if girls are equal, I say to you that I have my granddaughter, Mary Julia, and I think that girls are different, they are more obstinate, more creative and less weeping. NEVER .. they transformed a roll of paper in the Spiderman gun, I'm sure ..... tHE BOYS ARE THE BEST! believe!
Honey, keep it up every time I read her stories I think Marcelo and Marisa would love to have had a mom writer to be able to read their stories of children!
A kiss in the heart
love you
aunt Helo