Oct. 1, 2009 - Boy Meets Girls
I've been having fun watching Asrat awaken to the fact that there's a whole world of people out there who are very, very different from him. Namely: Little Girls
Since moving, we have reconnected with friends who have three little girls around our boys' ages. They play together very well, and have a grand time. The only commentary I've gotten about these "girl-friends" (as Gebre calls them) has been "They're bossy sometimes!"
But yesterday Asrat somehow found himself pulled into a gaggle of 7-9 year old girls, who were re-enacting the zoo program they'd all just watched at the library. At first he was interested in playing with them, but once he got drawn in and then essentially cornered by one particular girl who was clearly The Boss, he started throwing desperate glances my way.
Now, he is used to organizing games and setting out rules. "You be the pirate, I'll be the good guy!.....Let's have a race! To the end of the driveway and back!......You have to drive your bike in this lane!.....Get your swords, let's have a fight!" But at some point he realized that with these girls, the whole game was organizing and rule-making. It was really kind of funny watching this dawn on him, and his increasing need to get out of his corner combined with the lack of certainty about how to deal with Boss-Girl and her cohorts. He is a nice kid and didn't want to just up and leave, but he couldn't figure out how to extricate himself gracefully. Not wanting to be a Helicopter Mom, I let the poor thing suffer for a few minutes until the girl's moms started calling them to go home, to his great and obvious relief.
This afternoon at a birthday party, he ran into something similar, but he was more prepared and instead of being nervous, he just complained to me afterwards, but put on a good show and behaved very nicely during the party. He wanted to know why he wasn't invited to the planned slumber party and was tremendously put out that he got organized right to the back of the line when it came time to give the birthday girl her presents.
Somehow our homeschool group consisted mostly of boys, so now we are entering a new phase of "socialization": How to deal graciously with Girls. It will be interesting because Mama says you can't smack 'em with sticks, or holler at them, and they don't seem to have much interest in being evil pirate captains or speed racers who always end their races with fiery but ultimately not-deadly crashes, but they will organize you to death and attempt to decorate you with stickers. They do seem to be pretty good tag-players, though, so that's a point of common ground to start with.
Comments
Oct. 2, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous
you hang out with weird girls LOL. My girls LOVE to be play pirates. Transformers is a common game around here. Must be because we hang out with mostly boys. Hmm. Nature vs nurture sure is interesting!!
Sandy
blessedfam.blogspot.com
Oct. 2, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Lizzie
Poor thing! Girls are rather mysterious!
Oct. 2, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Posted by TomySky
Ah... it's a beautiful thing [smile].
When I was a group leader at camp, I purposely learned the girl's clapping game they played in the lunch line. Once my boys realized it was okay to learn it, we were soon giving the girls a run for their money. It was a blast!
But that is a very good observation: For girls, the game is the organization [smile]. I hadn't ever really put it like that before. Very insightful.
Of course, there are all sorts of girls, just as there are all sorts of boys. I had a very good friend for a summer who insisted we call her Fred. She was a hoot! A kindred spirit, for sure [smile].
~Luke
Oct. 2, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Posted by cappuccinosmom
Well, Sandy, you'll need to bring your gals out here so that my guys don't think *all* girls will organize them to death. :) Gebre might stop saying he doesn't ever want to get married if he realizes there are some pirate-playing girls out there. :p
Oct. 6, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Martha
or girls who grew up like me who had a hard time with all the other girls games and it was more fun to play with boys Although some of my friends did let me know I was "bossy" but they handed it right back!!!
