Boys

I can't say boys are easier or harder to raise than girls, but they are so different. I can't figure them out. Why do they pick anything up and use it as a sword or gun?

When my oldest was less than a year old I unexpectedly had to return to work. I am a firm believer that sometimes the pieces just fall into place for you when you are at capacity, and sometimes you don't quite realize it until you look back and reflect. I worked at a military/commercial airline manufacturer. The company got on the workplace daycare band wagon shortly before my son was born. The president's wife took it on as a pet project and lured a headmaster from a private school to run the facility. It was immediately filled, and had a long wait list. I didn't think I would need to put my son in daycare so I didn't sign up. When I suddenly had to go back to work I called and there was an immediate opening in his age group. Two years later, right around the time I quit working, the daycare closed. It was truly a blessing.

I tried not to stereotype my children. My oldest got a play kitchen with all the accessories for his first Christmas. He never used it the way his sister did four years later. By the time my youngest son was born I had abandoned any thoughts of him making play lunches for his stuffed animals.

All that is said to make the point that my son was in a daycare operated by a manufacturer of defense weapons, missiles, fighter jets. When he was in the one year old room he would pick up bannanas from the household living center, hold them like a pistol and pretend to shoot. When I would pick him up the teachers would chastise me and tell me how they were trying to get him to stop. I assured them he had never seen me, or anyone as far as I knew, aim a bananna and shoot. I didn't have cable and the only childrens programming he saw was Sesame Street. This went on until he moved up to the next group. In the two year old room he had access to legos and was able to assemble an entire aresenal. Once again I had to explain that this was not something we did at home. Neither of my boys could ever walk by a stick without picking it up and swinging.

My fourteen year old daughter had a boy/girl party this fall. We have pool, table tennis and air hockey, a big screen tv and lots of video games. We had put all of my younger sons nerf guns, swords, star wars lasers on shelves in the playroom. What did most of the 14 year old boys gravitate to -- the swords, guns and lasers (except for the one boy that wandered into the storage area with a girl who wasn't invited to the party).

We hosted a swim team dinner for my older son. When I went downstairs to check on them I noticed that the swords, guns and lasers were out. Some of the boys were playing poker with a sword sitting next to their chair or playing a video game while holding a nerf pistol.

My children got iphones (if they can pay the $30 connection fee) and itouches this year. There is an app that replicates a pistol and a variety of other guns. Both of my boys downloaded this and shoot each other with their iphone/touch!! My daughter didn't download that app.