If you are the proud parent of boys, it comes as no surprise to you that these cute creatures made of frogs and snails and puppy dog tails are also made of swords and guns and knife wielding fun.
So this blog is part vent and part to help my friends with girls to understand: with boys – it is absolute truth – that EVERYTHING can be a weapon.
Obviously, my boys love to engage in pirate play with their "soft" swords, and they love to karate chop each other with sticks. This doesn't surprise me; it does not take only a boy mind to use sticks and bats and other sword-shaped toys as, well, swords.
What never ceases to amaze me are the everyday household items that get repurposed as weapons. Popsicle sticks, crafty pipe cleaners, bubble-making wands – you name it.
Just a few days ago I watched as the boys whipped the flexible straws out of their chocolate soy milk and brandished them at each other with hearty "aaarrrrrrgh"s. Then Tadpole, very seriously and with significant big-brotherly concern in his voice, said "Mommy, Quatro doesn't have a sword [because, of course, my four week old is not yet drinking his beverages with a flexi straw]... we need to get him his own sword!" Sad. It starts sooo early.
And today, while eating a lunch creatively presented by Nana, the boys removed their ruffle-topped cocktail toothpicks out of hot dog chunks, only to start poking each other with them while .
Where, oh where, do they GET these ideas and tendency toward play fighting? They watch only carefully selected, non-combative TV programs and have spent very little time front of movies. Could all of this really stem from a half dozen viewings of the childhood favorite, Peter Pan?
The only explanation is that loud “weapon” play must truly be part of the genetic make-up of boys. And even though I grew up with a brother, I am not used to this kind of play. Oh, what fun I have in store for me.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
S - I love your whole blog...each and every one of your posts resonates so strongly with me! I had to comment on this post because it is just so so so true! No matter what we do to try to protect what goes in their little minds, the same "weapons, fight, battle, gun, shoot, die" seems to come out. A friend of mine who is a school psychologist went to a presentation by an author about raising boys - and he emphasized over and over that by nature, true to their genetic wiring, boys will play fighting, be obsessed with death, and turn anything and everything into something violent! This is something I remind myself so often as it is hard to not see it as a bad reflection on yourself when your boys act that way (although I know I am not modeling that kind of behavior :-)! Anyway, I keep planning to get his book from the library but haven't yet - his name is Michael Thompson. Thanks for your beautiful posts that just capture the essence of mommy-hood!
ReplyDelete