What raising boys has taught me…
Raising four wild men, 16, 14, 10 and 5 in Africa is a lesson in life that all women should be blessed with. I
have to laugh at some of the conversations I overhear from the men in
my house…all five (the fifth being the 41 year old trouble maker) of
them are a source of joy, laughter, messes, and smelly socks shoved in
my couch cushions.
However, I now know certain “truths” that I would have never known if I had not had the honor of mothering them…
- It is physically impossible to NOT play ball in the house when you are male, I give up.
- No matter what got broken in my house, all four of my sons “were not even in the country” when it happened.
- My
four sons apparently have a fifth brother that we have never met, but
be does exist, and he does a lot of damage, his name is “It wasn’t ME”…. - Air soft guns are NOT SOFT!
- scars
are cool, it is the road map of all your warrior stories, one should
never even suggest treating them with ointment that might actual
diminish the wound 
Boys
can track and Elk for 3 days in the freezing mountains of Colorado
without sleep or food, but they can not take the trash to the end of
the driveway….too far, too much energy extended on that one.- Mothers should NEVER run out to the football field to tend to an injured son, unless EMS is there first!
- it
takes an ENTIRE bottle of lighter fluid to start a small fire in our
fire pit, (plus and extra one after the fire is going, you know to make
it BIGGER) - It is impossible to ever hear the words, “I am full” from a growing boy, (but I keep trying.)
- Fireworks
are NOT just for the forth of July, they are even more exciting on a
Sunday afternoon when your parents are taking a nap. - The
warning phrase “not to be used on an animal or a human” written the box
of a new b-b gun causes hysterical laughter in young males…
The
most important thing I have learned about raising boys is they are the
most amazing creatures God ever created, and they bring adventure and
mystery to everyday life.
Boys
need a father to call them out and show them how to be a man, and they
need a mother to love them unconditionally, just as they are, smelly
socks and all!
