I’m a mom to four children, three girls and one boy, and a grandmother to one little girl. For as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted a house full of girls. Imagine my surprise – yes, I know how these things work – when the doctor said my second child was a boy. A boy, I thought, what am I supposed to do with a boy?
Girls Over Boys
A little tongue in cheek obviously, but with a measure of truth. When children are young it’s fairly easy to navigate the toys and the minimal of activities. My son, now 11, and his middle sister who’s 10 are only 15 months apart in age, which meant a lot of shared toys when they were toddlers. Although I’m a girly girl I do have a lot of tomboy in me so they played with all kinds of toys. Sometimes they played with dolls and other times trucks, bugs and action figures had their attention.
When my son was about 6 or 7, I was again planning one of his sister’s birthday parties – a tea party. I wracked my brain for things for him and his best friend to do, but I was swamped with planning so I just enlisted a neighbor to keep the boys, and other male siblings forced to come along, playing outside. It was only fair, right? He lives with three girls all the time and then his older sister comes over and now his niece so he’d be surrounded by girls doing hair or nails or watching a girly movie. There’s nothing wrong with letting him have a few friends over to balance things out.
In the name of balance, I began thinking of other ideas that both girls and boys love. It was perfect when my youngest wanted a pool party and another year a sister wanted an ice cream party. Those are ideal situations for boys. Probably one of the best parties for everyone was my youngest daughter’s 7th birthday party with the cowgirl theme. I had it at a ranch and the kids rode horses, ran through the dirt, were pulled on a hay wagon and almost got dumped into a pond. They were even dressed the part.
It was a party that great memories are made of. So, you see, in the end I didn’t have to put too much effort into keeping him involved in the big things. I just have to keep in mind the little things like when we’re hanging out at home. Instead of watching Tinker Bell for the 20… thousandth time, we’ll watch something that’s family friendly and not gender specific.
In the end, my son feels just as comfortable playing dolls with his sisters as he does kicking the soccer ball around. I’m glad I was able to naturally balance our activities to help him be the rough and tumble boy he is along with the thoughtful and caring son and brother he is. From this mom’s point of view, this son is growing into a young man that won’t let himself be the odd boy out; he is the prince in the center of all this female attention.
Image: iStockPhoto
