the Bitch in the house

That ole B.S.line that teenaged girls are harder to raise than teen boys is a large load of pure manure.  I think most people figure some ‘truth’ in that ideology because they are not paying any attention to boys at this age.  Or, they are trying to avoid thoughtless male aggression.  Boys are a mess. 

 

Worse, they are growing themselves up in a world that is so damn sexist and gender-norming that to feel, emote, or otherwise express themselves is to attract negative attention to themselves.   My boys and their friends are prime exemplars of maleness.  They are good-looking, smarty, and sporty guys.  Most of the time, the teenaged monstrosities crack me up when they are not trying to out-testosteroney each other.   They are clever and smartalicky and wickedly silly.  They can be overly physical and musky in a nasty jackass 2.5 sorta way, but for the most part, the boys that hang out with the ePrince might just turn out to be pretty good guys.   And when they get too rambunctious, I am a good sassy feminist mama, not afraid to whip’em into shape.

So why is that these boys are always at my house?  Why is that their parents are not hanging out with them?  Why is it that their families are not engaged in their activities?   I think it is because there is some sort of whacky ideal that isolates boys in general, and these boys in particular.  Somehow there is the notion that once peniled critters start sprouting hair and cracking octaves, they can manage the world on their own.  In this era, we have not socialized our boys to be independent or self-sufficient until a much older age.  In fact, scientifically, we have discovered that boys don’t fill out their frontal lobes until they’ve reached their mid-20’s.  So how could these young guys possibly stand a chance in navigating the world without some support, friendship, and guidance?

The ePrince is no different in need than his buddies.  Yet, I am overwhelmed by his teenaginess a lot these days.  I had been joking that it is cool to talk to the ePrince every other conversation.  I’ve said before, and I mean it, I am so privileged to really believe I got a really cool kid.  Just most recently, I feel that that he’s cool to hang out with, every other, other, time I talk to him.  But I haven’t given up, and I still gotta love him… the freakin’ booger that he is!

All the while, the lilEinstein is such a funny little suck-up when there’s a tough convo with the ePrince.  He is blink, blinkie in a cutey, tow-headed, blue-eyed kinda way…  I just know that I’m gonna be in even bigger trouble when he breaks 13 years!