What Boys Need

Happy Fatherhood Friday. After you finish here, be sure to fight and rumble your way over to the great bloggers at dad-blogs.com.

So a co-worker, who herself has five children (a mixture of boys and girls, several of whom are grown and out of the nest), was asking me about my boys.

After an update, she paused for a moment—no doubt reflecting on the accumulated wisdom of her many years of parenting—and said, matter-of-factly:

“You have boys. Boys are easy. All you need are WEAPONS and a PLACE TO WRESTLE.”

I laughed pretty hard.

Perhaps the funniest part is that, very generally speaking, she’s right.

Fast forward to Wednesday evening.

Mom-E left the boys and I to our own devices to get a haircut.

After dinner, we headed outside to play for a bit, Big Brother hoping to simultaneously ride bikes, play ball, and color with sidewalk chalk; Little Brother refusing to wear shoes; and Bab-E Brother strapped to my chest in the Baby Bjorn.

10 minutes into our play, we’ve brought out the oversized plastic set of golf clubs and a fat bat, which are being used as Thundercat swords.

WEAPONS: CHECK.

Big Brother and Little Brother, to the cry of “Buttercats-Ho” (Little Brother can’t say “Thundercats”, he calls them “Buttercats”) begin to engage in swordplay with the golf clubs, leaving me holding the fat bat to protect Bab-E Brother in case of any errant strikes.

To my extreme amusement, Bab-E Brother finds the clashing of swords ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS, cackling with laughter each time they collide.

To boot, he laughs even harder the closer Little Brother gets to striking a blow to Big Brother’s head.

Mind you, this is the first time Bab-E Brother has seen his older brothers sword fighting, and instead of showing fear at the commotion, would squirm out of the Bjorn and join them if he was ambulatory.

Apparently my co-worker was right. It’s just innate boy behavior.

When Mom-E got home, I took advantage of the fact that she was satisfied with her haircut to ask if we could modify the guest bed into a wrestling ring.

PLACE TO WRESTLE: PENDING.

Have a good weekend,
Busy-Dad-E