Alright, moms of boys – raise your hands.
Boys are so strange, right?!?! I have three of them myself. Sure, every child is unique, but, as a group, I find them to be SO different from my daughter. She is quite the “old soul,” so to speak, and definitely falls into many of the traditional “girly” stereotypes (though she won’t hesitate to throw a sharp elbow at one of her brothers if she thinks we’re not looking). My boys, however, couldn’t be any more different than their sister.
My boys are busy. And, I mean, busy. They are constantly moving, making noises, touching each other, touching things, annoying each other, annoying me, running, jumping, making more noises.
Repeat. Maybe it is because the three of them always have each other – other beings to engage with, beat on, wrestle with, or annoy – but they are always, always, engaging.
In any way possible.
For quite some time, I was a wreck trying to intervene at every given chance, pulling them off each other and constantly shouting, “Someone is going to get hurt!” or “Be careful!” Even our twins, from the time that they were REALLY little, just wanted to engage.
And then Justin finally told me that this is just what boys DO.
Justin is one of three boys in his own family (with two sisters as well). From his own experience, he tells me that he and his brothers did these exact same things as children. In fact, I have even witnessed a few occasions of them engaging this way as adults. After this discussion, I decided that it was time for me to let go. Let go of trying to micromanage every encounter, every pillow fight, and every wrestling match. I set some boundaries for them in terms of off-limits behavior and what is and isn’t acceptable, but otherwise, I let them play and engage, and oftentimes just tune the whole dang thing out.
For boys, it appears that Dogpile is their love language.
All you Moms of Boys out there – embrace the Dogpile!
