I’m not talking about the War on Terror. Dana of Mamlougues recently wrote about the war against boys. See her blog and links to the article here. She wrote about dealing with a world in which it’s ok for girls to wear T-shirts that say “Boys Suck” but totally not kuel for boys to wear anything remotely like that!
Well…. it’s hit pretty close to home. Today my 5 year old son was told by a 7 year old girl in the neighborhood that he wasn’t allowed to play with her and her cool ride on jeep, cuz he’s “a boy.” Now I can understand that girls this age want to play with girls, and boys with boys. So here is this little girl, giving rides to every female on the block, but no boys allowed cuz their boys.
What got me, was the look of hurt in my son’s eyes as he told me. He just couldn’t understand why the girl wouldn’t share with him, just cuz he’s a boy. What can I do? I’d love to go smack some sense into the girl and her mother (who btw was not outside supervising her child as she should have been, but that’s another rant)… But there is my little boy, with all that hurt shining through his eyes… I did the only thing I could do.
I gave him a big hug. I told him I’m sorry that girl was mean to him just cuz he’s a boy. I tried to explain it on a level he’d understand by asking if there were ever times at school when he would rather play with the guys in his class… but my son, true Playa that he is, declared he likes playing with the girls. *S* so there goes that analogy. But I smoothed all that hurt out of his face when I handed him an extra spoonful of cookie dough. *S*