Random Thoughts On Boys

So this post started as a comment on a friends blog - she has two little girls and is debating a third child in the hopes of a boy but made the comment that she would have no clue what to do with a boy if she were to have one. I wrote back that I knew just how she felt and blah blah blah thats going to be below, but I realized that she probably didn't need a novel in her comment section so I decided to make it a post in our blog. lol.

Boys VS Girls

I honestly didn't really care if I had a boy or a girl, I just wanted a healthy baby - but I did say that a girl would probably be easier b/c I know what to do with one of those! I mean its me and my sister, of my 20+ cousins only like a half dozen are male, my sister has all girls, my cousins' have a lot of girls, we've got girls EVERYWHERE. I am well aware that the man decides the gender but its still ALOT of girls. So when I found out I was having a boy I just sat there and stared slack jawed at the ultrasound. LOL. I was so surprised. I just really truly assumed I would have a girl first.

Thus far taking care of a boy is not too different from taking care of my nieces (except he's more likely to nail you when you change his diaper) but we'll see as he gets older. Right now he's a HECKUVA lot more mellow than the nieces. I'm not sure if this is because he's male or just b/c he's a happy laid back little person, or if he's saving it for when he's a teenager. I mean yes he's FEARLESS and just GOES for whatever he wants but my nieces have been the same way so thats not so much a difference.

I have discovered thanks to this experience that I'm something of a closet chauvinist. I generally don't think of myself that way at all, but when I was picking bedding sets I discovered something - knowing that I was having a boy gave me the ability to be financially sensible and pick out an ultra cute gender neutral bedding set. You put blue sheets with it and its perfect for a little boy, pink sheets and PRESTO girlie! But to be honest - if I was having a girl - it would have been unabashedly pink, and purple and ruffles and ribbons. But really that has more to do w/ the girlie stuff being so insanely cute and my lacking impulse control (the pink... it just short circuits the budgetary brain cells) and not being that in love with baseballs and tonka trucks - so the straight up BOY stuff doesn't appeal as much so I can be more "reasonable" and go with something that won't require me to completely redecorate my nursery should I have a second child of another gender (there that sounds so much better all rationalized than thinking of myself as a bigot).

But I think the girl vs boy differences will become more pronounced as he gets older and people start pushing the cultural norms on him (intentionally or not). I mean I'm gonna do my dead level best to make sure he can cook and clean as well as any girl b/c I think those are skills that EVERY person should have regardless of their genitalia. But honestly if he wants to play with a dolly I won't freak (I played with toy cars and somehow turned out okay). Neither will I really care if he makes every single thing he picks up go "vroom vroom!" or "bang! bang!". As long as it makes the kid happy, its safe and its legal I'm cool with it.

Personally I really really want to see who he is and becomes and choses to be. I mean he could be an athlete or an artist, academic or business man. I want to see what moves him, what he's passionate about. I don't care what he does as long as it makes him happy (though I have to be honest and say that I hope it earns him a decent living and allows him time for a family and blah blah blah blah blah....).