Living with Boys

Girls and boys are different. Everyone knows that, right? I don't think I realized just how different until I had my third boy and everyone around me kept having more girls. There are some things that just seem inevitable if you live with boys. This list could go on longer but these are just the ones that came to my mind first. If you have boys, I think you'll be able to relate to the following and if you have girls you may be glad you don't have boys.......


1. The Bathroom

 If you have boys than you know that the bathroom is an ongoing battle. Or maybe your boys just have better aim than mine. I have sat in urine countless times. It doesn't matter that we've tried to teach them to wipe the seat when they miss, which is 95% of the time. And the pee that doesn't end up in the toliet or on the seat, inevitably dribbles onto the floor creating a yellow stain at the bottom of the toliet. By the end of the day the urine smell can permeate the entire bathroom. When I know someone is going to be coming over, I wipe everything down and hope the boys don't use it before the guest needs to. And when people come over unexpectedly and  ask to use the restroom,  I wonder if they can see me cringing inside as I say, " Excuse the mess, you know it's a boys' bathroom." I will never forget the time my mother n law came to stay. She brought me a washcloth and said," Smell this." It had a very distinct smell of urine but yet she had taken it from the drawer of "clean" washcloths. Turns out the 4 year old had been wiping his pee off the toliet seat with the washcloths and then putting them back in the drawer.  That story pretty much sums up what it is like to share your bathroom with boys. And I can tell you I'm not that excited about potty training the 2 year old because it's just one more person whose going to pee on my bathroom floor.


I need this sign for the boys' bathroom!

2. Noise Level: Redefine your definition of loud

They're LOUD. All of the time. Even when they're trying to be quiet.  Boys make noise constantly. They like the TV loud, they listen to their music at a high volume, and whisper is not even in their vocabulary. They can be doing something as simple as eating or playing with a toy car, but while they're doing it they're making noise. Almost every time we're in the car, I wish we had one of those windows (like the kind they have in limosines) that separate the driver from the passengers. Seriously, don't you think that would be a great invention for parents? Then you could actually have a conversation with your spouse in the car. If we try to talk to each other in the car it's like a cue for someone to cry, yell, sing, fight, or take swings at each other with objects even though they they don't sit right next to each other. However, at times, I find myself  immune to the noise. That is until I see other people staring at me. The glare usually means one of three things;
 "Aren't those boys so cute", " Really? You should have better control over your children.", or my favorite which people actually say out loud to me at least once a week, " Wow! You must really have your hands full." Please don't say that to me. Of course I have my hands full, I am the mother of 3 young boys. You don't have to tell me what I already know.

3. Become Inventive with BabyProofing


This may not be true for all parents of boys. But I have personally observed boys to be inquisitive, and mine happen to be extremely inquisitive. If there's a way to climb it, it will be climbed. If there's not a way to climb it, they will find something to use as a stool so they can climb it. And when I say something, I mean anything can be used as a stool. The two year old's current stool is a Sit and Spin.  You know the toy where you spin the top so you can turn in circles.  Not the most sturdy object to be standing on top of. If you think they can't open it, they probably can and if they're not supposed to touch it, they probably will and then they will take it apart and they may even try to put it back together. Two of the three boys required baby proofing such as locks for cabinets and door knob handles so they wouldn't get out. The first one got into stuff in a way that normal boys do when they are exploring their world and entertaining their curiousity. The second child, well he was just content living within his own world so he wasn't that interested in exploring ours. Now the third one is an entirely different breed of boys.  I think we should seriously consider hiring him out to babyproofing companies. One of his favorite things to do is take the baby safety outlet covers out of the outlets. We bought a fridge lock but he just breaks it off. After 3 different refrigerator locks,  now we just tie it closed with his pajama pant bottoms. Honestly, I don't think you can child proof for boys because you never know what they are going to do next......

4. Weapons


Anything can be turned into a weapon. We don't allow our children to have toy guns, besides Nerf Guns, and yet any object is bound to end up as a gun or something that shoots.  We also don't permit them to watch movies, cartoons, or TV shows with violence. But yet they still reenact shooting and fighting with their toys or in their drawings. And if a toy or object is not turned into a gun, then it will most likely be made into a sword. Because if they're not shooting people then they are hitting each other with some sort of object.


5.  The New Clean is ~ Slightly Dirty


They can be dressed and within 10-15 minutes they're dirty again. Either they've gotten toothpaste, food, or snot on their shirt. A boys shirt is a shirt, a napkin, and a tissue all in one. They own very few pairs of pants that don't have holes in the knees. Shoes last about a month and then they usually have holes worn in them. Brushing teeth, well let's just say that could be an entirely separate post. You may not know this but we really do brush their hair every day, well almost every day. But you can't tell by the time they leave the house. "Slightly dirty" as the new clean not only applies to hygiene but to how well they do chores. Remember the bathroom issue. Well the 9 year old is in charge of cleaning the bathroom once a week. Sometimes when he's done cleaning that yellow pee stain is still on the bottom of the floor.  Of course I make him redo it but I swear he thinks it's clean enough.

Despite all of these idiosyncrasies, I love having boys. For some reason, God gave me these three crazy, active little boys. They keep me on my toes and teach me more about the world around me than most grown - ups I know. Therefore, I will embrace the sword fighting, frog catching, and even the pee stained floor over the pretty bows and frilly dresses.