How Do You Tuck in a Superhero

A while ago I came across this blog written by a woman with five boys and who was pregnant with her sixth child (she just had a GIRL). She is a professional writer and her blog is quite entertaining to read - it's called Testosterhome.  Anyway, I saw she just wrote a book titled How Do You Tuck in a Superhero and other delightful mysteries of raising boys.  I decided to buy it off Amazon.com. To my surprise I finished it in less than a week. It wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be, but still very entertaining. Basically it is a 200 page book compiled of 2-3 page stories about her boys, broken down into different categories. I thought I would share a few of my favorite parts.




"We women with boys (and it's a heck of a lot of us, really), we need to encourage each other. Yes, it's tough. Yes, boys can be wild. But it's worth it. You're doing great. You're going to make it. You are raising tomorrow's men. Make warriors, not wimps."


This is a story I found very entertaining and hit home (if any of you have met Jack, you know he takes off at the speed of lightning any chance he gets). 
I cannot tell you the number of people who come up to me when we are out in public, who pull me aside and whisper to me that having all boys is simple-that boys are so much easier than girls. I hear this a lot, and some days I take comfort in that fact. With girls, people will tell me, it's all so emotional. And things are never what they seem. It's true that with boys what you see is what you get.  I love and appreciate that about boys.


One summer afternoon, a friend and I took our children to the local science museum. She had her five children (two girls, three boys), and I had my four boys (pre 5th baby). We arrived at the museum and had a long, drawn out pep talk in the parking lot. It was there I went over the importance of staying right by me, where I droned on and on and belabored the point and maybe even threatened loss of privilege and food to those who got too far ahead.


Ten minutes later, we walked inside the museum and my boys disappeared immediately. Gone from my side, out of my sight, zipping through the exhibits like monkeys on speed.


Right around this time, another friend walked by. This father was there with his five daughters, all of whom were dutifully holding onto a piece of his clothing as they toured the sights.


How do you do that? I asked, while looking around for even a remote sign of my boys.


He explained that he had instructed the girls to stay nearby, and that if they ran off, they would have to run laps or do pushups when they got home. That sounded like a good idea for about a second, until I realized my boys would take that as some kind of incentive, and not as punishment. After the dad left, I turned to my friend with a look of frustration and possibly dismay.  


How can having boys be easier I asked. I just don't see it. 


It's not she told me. And she admitted that to her, boys were harder.


At least in this situation, I know she was right. I was living proof that even if girls are emotional and conniving, at least they stay put.




And another excerpt that made me smile

"No one sets out to have a single-gender sibling set. Plenty of people get some of each. The rest of us wind up with something that looks different than what we imagined but is somehow the answer to the hopes and dreams we never knew we had."