Letting Boys Be Boys

For some reason, a subset of mothers feel that boys in particular must be corralled and lectured and told not to climb or play with sticks or splash at the pool.

In The Examiner, Meghan Cox Gurdon weighs in on mothers who just can't understand that their little boys will behave like boys.

'Alex. Alex. Stop splashing, Alex.'

The words emerged from the child's mother's mouth in a dull, flat tone, as if from a robot. In a crowded pool, a little boy was frisking about. He was splashing, true, but so were all the other children on this hot afternoon.

'Alex, she doesn't like that,' the woman intoned from her chair, as the boy romped beside a little girl and thwacked the surface of the water. The girl regarded Alex briefly, then picked up her pink bucket and resumed playing.

'Alex. Alex,' the mother began again, a moment later. Her son had found a neon green plastic seahorse on the edge of the pool, and was bobbing it through the waves. ...

It was a sad but riveting spectacle. Here was a child, obliviously enjoying himself, while his mother told him off as relentlessly as a metronome. ...

For some reason, a subset of mothers feel that boys in particular must be corralled and lectured and told not to climb or play with sticks or splash at the pool.

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