Raising a boy is such an adventure. Okay, I'm compelled to scratch that; partly because raising any human being is in itself an indescribably enlightening, adventurous experience - and also because I'm slightly afraid of offending all the Mummies with girls. You just don't mess with Mums... Mums are scary people, I tells you *shudder*. Not so long ago, I was the fairly meek, tolerant, step-all-over-me-why-don't-
Is this a form of ADD or what? What was I saying? Oh yeah. Raising a boy is so interesting. I'm the youngest of 4 siblings, only 1 of whom is a boy and one 11 years my elder at that. Every day with my little man is a refreshing insight into the mind of a tiny member of the male species! I hate to disappoint everyone, but it really isn't all that different... yet ('wait till those hormones come into play', I can hear you think). Like everyone else out there, I've heard all the old wives tales of how boys do everything later than girls. I've read all the articles trying to justify why this is so and I've also admittedly pushed my poor little munchkin to his limits on occasion to prove the world wrong ('Walk, you lazy, little bum... WALK! No?? Drop and give me twenty!!'). But it's just not true, I tell ya. What they did get right in all those books, forums and tales is that every child is unique. Mine walked late, but has a vocabulary that takes after his Mum *ahem*.. No surprises there.
Why not push them, I say... Boys, girls, whatever. We didn't get this far in life by making excuses, did we? Well, ok, some of us did. And the ones that didn't, slacked off too sometimes. But mostly, we got here because our parents pushed us to be the best we could be. Our Mums didn't go through 9 months of carrying us inside, indescribable pain to bring us out in the world, so many years of putting up with our tantrums and torturous teenage years just to watch us make excuses for all we can't do and be. They didn't bail us out of undoubtedly humiliating situations, spend so much hard-earned money and sacrifice the better part of their lives just to see that the fruit of their labour is in fact just a vegetable. Even vegetables these days are injected with God-knows-what to make them nicer to look at, smarter, healthier and more likely to get somewhere in the world (ok, not smarter, but you get the point). That was possibly one of the lamest examples I've ever given. Someone kill me now.
I don't have a girl, but this is what I feel the difference is so far: Boys are a little less sure of themselves, a little more reckless, a little less manipulative, a little less sensitive, a little less in-tune with their emotions, a lot more stubborn and A LOT louder.
Wow.
Now that I've put down those thoughts, I'm sensing the difference between boys and girls at this age however subtle, when put into retrospect, does seem to perfectly magnify as they get older, doesn't it?
P.S. Sorry, I haven't mentioned fathers in there somewhere whilst listing the countless sacrifices Mums make for their kids. No discredit to the dads, but if I'd done that, I might as well have called this the Diary of a Faddy Daddy ;)
