Mother of Boys…

I always knew I was supposed to have boys. When I was first pregnant, people would ask me if I knew what I was having. I would say no, that we didn’t get the test done, but I knew it was a boy. My husband thought it was a girl. Do I even need to say it, ladies? Mother knows best! The thought of having a daughter actually scared the crap out of me. I’m not wired like most girls. Yes, I loved to play with dolls when I was little and play house, but I loved playing sports and being outside with the boys. I always felt more comfortable with the boys, no drama.

I don’t do well with drama. It was just meant to be that I ended up with two fantastic boys.

There are a few things I’d like to inform young mothers about being the Mother of boys. First off, they will love you fiercely. Some really want to snuggle, and others would rather you show you love them by chasing them around. I had both.

My oldest is an old soul; we knew he was from an early age. He was such a good listener and a kind-hearted little boy.

He was easygoing and so loving. My youngest was a wild man. He was my mover, chase me! The kid had to wear a life jacket all summer long when he was turning 1. We lived on a lake, and he was so fast, for safety, we would put his life jacket on before he went outside. He always ended up down at the water to play. It wasn’t like I didn’t watch him; he was just that fast. He’s the same reason we have a gate on our deck. Mom was playing offence, keeping him contained!

The only time he liked to snuggle was when he was sleeping. One night, he was asleep on my chest, and I had tears running down my face. My husband asked me what was wrong. I said, “He’s so cute when he’s sleeping, but I know he’s just recharging, and when he wakes up, it’s crazy!” He laughed pretty hard at that but knew it for the truth it was.

We love that he always kept us on our toes.

Even if you are a new Mom and you expected a girl and now have this little boy, don’t worry; you will get the hang of it in no time.

You think boys might not be fun to buy clothes for, but they are. There is so much cute stuff out there, and I can tell you from experience, they will let you buy their clothes for them for years. My oldest is 23, and he would love it if I would buy his clothes still.

When my boys were in school, we did our back-to-school shopping online. I would pull up a website, tell them to pick out a few shirts, I’d pick out their jeans, and we were done. No more hauling them to stores and hearing how they didn’t want to go shopping. One of the best things about the internet.

It saved hours of frustration on my end and theirs. Back to the little boys, as a young mom, you will learn all about the little boy shows and all the character’s names and superheroes. I loved that stage. We would dress up and play superheroes for hours. The bonus is, if you get tired of playing, you can lay down and play dead, and they think it’s funny.

You will end up with emergency room visits, broken bones and stitches. It’s just something that happens when you have boys. It’s a way they learn too. I had a friend tell me once that she had learned over the years with 2 girls and a boy that the best thing you can do for your kids is let them do stupid things and learn from them. She would watch her son and know that what he was doing wasn’t going to end well, but she let him do it anyway. After it was all over, she would ask him if he was going to do it again. The answer was no most of the time; the odd time was yes because he thought he could do it better the next time. Her response to this was usually, well, I guess you haven’t learned your lesson yet, so go ahead. My boys were pretty young when I heard this, and as they grew, I got it. Sometimes you just have to let them learn and relearn on their own. They eventually get it. All you seasoned Mom’s of boys know what I am talking about. Sometimes their Dad is right there with them, learning the same lessons. Haha!

Oh, just so you know, the first broken bone is the scariest. All the others that come after, well, you already learned what to do!

As boys grow, they get taller, eat copious amounts of food, and they stink! Have the deodorant talk with your kids before it becomes a problem. They don’t want to be the stinky kid! Teach them to wash their clothes. When it comes to sports gear, be thankful if you live in a cold climate and can keep it outside. I liked to use a Norwex product called sportzyme. You could spray everything down, and it took care of the bacteria that caused the stink.

It worked really well, and I would recommend it for anything boy-related. Even use it in their shoes by the front door. It works on girl shoes too! If you are interested in sportzyme, you can contact Brenda at Brenda.robinson@me.com. She can hook you up.

I really loved that my boys were sports kids. Both Kevin and I are sporty, and we loved to be involved in what the kids were doing.

Try and find a role in their sports if that suits you. If not, that’s ok too. Just cheer them on. One thing about boys is that you will have so much sports equipment you will feel like you can open a sports shop. The fun times are when they hit a growth spurt in the middle of a season, and you have to buy them all new equipment so they can keep going.

As a parent, this is hard on the bank book, but there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. They can’t control their body as it grows so quickly and right or wrong; you can have a little chuckle at your young gazelle out on the field trying to run.

Limbs are going every which way, and it can be pretty entertaining. Keeping boys busy is the key. If it’s sports or the arts or chores around the house and yard, busy is best.

Boys are fun; they make you laugh. They make bodily noises that make you laugh. They can do such silly things, and it makes you love them more. They can be hard to discipline because what they have done is so funny, you can’t keep a straight face. They will work hard for you, and they will love you. They will get to that age where they don’t want to be around you, but they always come back. Mine did anyway. Sometimes at that age, you don’t want them around, and that’s ok too.

As they get older, you have more challenges, and I will touch on that in another post about the Stupid Years. There are also times when you teach them life skills like cooking and grocery shopping, and laundry. All things that will make them excellent humans moving down the road. Then as they continue to grow up, you realize what an incredible human you helped to make, and you love to hang out with them. You get to see them become the men you raised them to be. I love that about my boys, and even now, sometimes when I look at them, all I can see is a little Batman and Robin even though they are both 6 feet plus. I’m so happy I am blessed to be the Mother of Boys!