-Rowan loves his nuk. And I am pretty sure we missed our window of opportunity to take it away without too much of a fight. Using nuks are one of those things that get parents riled up about. Brevin wasn't a nuk fan so we didn't really ever have to fight this battle with him. But now we have an 18 month old that really REALLY likes his nuk. It was never our intention. And now we will have a fight. Sigh.
-I strongly dislike when people say well this one, this one is ALL BOY! Would somebody please define what all boy means? Because last time I checked, I have two boys. And just because one bonks his head more and likes to throw things and the other is more verbally expressive and talks on and on about dinosaur bones does not mean one is any less or more of a boy. What the heck people? Seriously.
-I am starting a book on raising boys. It has come highly recommended. I am not linking it yet because I am nowhere near done with it, but from what I have read so far, I kind of want to throw it out the window. It seems from this book, it is not only acceptable for boys to be boys (which by the stories used in the books this translates into acting like uncivilized savages), but for that to almost be an excuse for not following rules, being disrespectful and not being just a normal person in society. Also, I feel like gender typing has value, but it also feels so boxed in...like if your boy isn't exactly like this, something is wrong with him. We will see how the rest of the book goes.
-Here is a boys being boys or all boy topic. While Brevin is playing these days, the words kill, die and dead are being used. As this has been occurring over the last few weeks, Heath and I have looked at each other bewildered by how this has happened? And then we go round an round about nature vs. nurture. Brevin doesn't watch anything beyond PBSKids because honestly most movies scare him when there is a strong good vs. evil presence. Video games are not really a presence in our home unless you count golf on the Wii. Heath isn't a hunter. And yet here is our 4 1/2 year old setting up scenarios with a family of monster trucks where the daddy is having an issue with a "bad guy" so the kid monster trucks kill the bad guy. Where does this come from? Right now we are engaging in conversation with him about what the words mean, but it is hard to know the balance of it all. I very much remember babysitting for a couple that REALLY did not want any sort of guns represented in their home with their boys and yet every chance the boys got, they made something into a gun.
On a lighter note, Brevin informed me this week that he wants to be a scientist AND a race car driver when he grows up. And Rowan is adding words to his vocabulary. This week he added round and round.
2 comments:
Hi Jill - Enjoyed this post as I am now raising a boy after 2 girls and it's fun to notice the differences and things that aren't so different. Just a note about the nuk. I feel your pain! Teague loved the nuk too at 18 months and I thought we missed the window. Then one night at about 20 months in the middle of the night after getting up a few times to replace the nuk, Jeremy declared we were DONE with the nuk. So the next 2 days were bad but since then it's been great and I'm so glad we did it. Life is way easier actually with a lot less whining. Don't feel bad with whatever you do with it though. I don't care if 3 year olds have nuks, whatever works.
Love that we get to share our opposite experiences of raising girls vs. boys! It is like I get to see what it is like to have boys first hand through you guys! I love it!
The nuk thing will resolve itself over time like Angela said!
The nature vs. nurture thing is really interesting. Always wonder where kids get all that from, especially like you said since it is not something he sees or hears often or at all!
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