Why God made little boys

I had always thought that I would be one of those stratford moms - calm and always so sophisticated, never yelling at my children, who, by the way, would always be clean and well-behaved. I also imagined that I would have dainty daughters to go high-tea and shopping with and share all the girly secrets with. When my princes were babies, they were oh-so-cute and sweet.

In recent years, they suddenly grew out of their baby-cuteness and became... gasp! Boys! To the uninitiated, esteemed mom of boys need to be tough. Not just tough in a physical sense, but tough as in I-don't-buy-your-s**t tough. And you must learn to take in all kinds of nonsense (such as gruesome jokes of s**t, violent display of 'boy play', dramatic phoney bambi-eye moments) without batting an eyelid. It's crucial for survival in this testosterone-jungle.

I was recently hit with a giddy aura of smelly shirts and loud noises at my older prince's birthday. At 11, he only wanted to invite boys to his birthday party as 'girls were silly and annoying'. In the short span of 3 hours, I witnessed shouting, laughter, quarelling, wrestling, teasing, vomitting, messy food area and dirty faces and feet. At some point during the party, I told my friend that if this had been a girl's party, it would have been a lot neater, quieter and saner. She looked at me sympathetically and agreed whole-hearted as she also has a boy.

But then during the party, I also saw my older prince standing up for my friend's 6-year boy who was trying hard to snatch the basketball from the bigger boys. I saw him passing the ball to the little fellow and hoisting him close to the net to score a point. His little friend was grinning happily when everyone cheered for him. My heart exploded with pride. I never thought much about how lovable boys can be.

I began to count all the ways that having boys is good for mothers and felt blessed and lucky to be the mother of my princes.

There is a poem entitled 'Why God Made Little Boys' which really describes how boys should be appreciated - as they are - funny and courageous.

God made a world out of His dreams,
Of magic mountains, oceans and streams;
Prairies and plains and wooded land.
He then paused and thought,
"I need someone to stand on top of the mountains,
To conquer the sea,
Explore the plains and climb the trees,
Someone to start out small and grow sturdy,
And strong like a tree"
And so... He created boys,
Full of spirit and fun to explore and conquer,
To romp and run
With dirty faces, banged up chins,
With courageous hearts and boyish grins.
When He had completed the task He'd begun,
He surely said, "That's a job well done."

God's wonderful creation - boys. Older prince with his 'ya ya' brotherhood.

Little prince with his little friends

Older prince wrote this in his school student handbook... Hope the teacher is not a detailed reader.

Being 'zen'

Recently, in my office, there is this joke about being 'zen' when the going gets tough. I had read a work-related email that was suppossed to be worrying and stressful but for some (sick) reasons, it tickled me so much I couldn't stop laughing. My colleagues thought I had gone bonkers.

In the past, when things got stressful, I would have been irritated and blown my top. Now, I am not so bothered any more. At first, I thought that must be a good thing but then on second thoughts, I might be repressing the negative emotions within me cos I still had problems sleeping at night. I guess for that particular incident, I had looked at the the picture from the outside, like a third party and somehow found it ridiculous yet funny.

Anyway, there is really no point getting stressed over things that are beyond my control. There is a theory that we all have our small sphere of influence. Beyond that sphere, we have no control and if we try, we get frustrated and unduly stressed.

'Zening' is not necessarily a bad thing. It's different from being apathetic though. 'Zening' by my definition, simply means ' don't sweat the stuff you can't control'. So, I'm going to try to 'zen'. ohm...