Meet Julie. She is a fellow boy mom. Her Brayden is about the same age as Boogaboo, so we have shared quite a few of the same toddler woes—hello, picky eaters-- together. In this post, Julie asks a good question:
How do we let our boys be boys without letting them be bullies?
Julie blogs over at Back to the Basics.
When Jami needed a guest blogger, I was all over it! I mean, Boy Crazed Momma? It pretty much sums me up at this point. My son Brayden is 19 months old, and I am expecting baby #2 in early October. Obviously, we don't know the baby's gender yet so for now? It's all boy stuff around here. Tonka Trucks, car, planes, trains, blocks, etc. All boy.
And with that comes destruction, throwing, wrecking, destroying, and trying to find my sanity. I mean, I know that boys "generally" play rougher. Brayden knows he needs to be gentle with the cats. But everything else? Fair game. I am all about letting him explore that side of him and since we have been cooped up due to the snow, sometimes knocking down towers gets out some of that built up energy. But a couple of weeks ago, my views were changed slightly.
It was when my mom took Brayden with her to Bible study. She said he could go to the nursery and that it would be really good for him since we are having a hard time with him staying in there during church. There were 2 girls in there playing with a dollhouse and Brayden walked right up to the dollhouse and just smacked his hand, taking out all of the dolls and their little accessories. My son does not know gentle in relation to other kids, and quite frankly, how would he? He is either with me or my mom and dad, playing mostly by himself with no one to share with. This really bothered me- I certainly don't want to be raising a bully. And when things get out of hand at home, I feel like I have been handling it well. This scenario made me think about how I really am handling it at home and if I am doing the "right" thing. It was definitely an eye opener for me, and although at this point I am not sure what to do about it, I know that I need to do something. I need to find the balance between being a boy mom and not raising a bully.
They say that boys will be boys, but will toddler boys ever figure out how to play nice? So far, I am not convinced. I guess we will see what happens!
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