I used to laugh at my mom friends who had their boys running them in circles. "Just give them some paper and a box of crayons" I would advise with my Activity Mummy expertise. It wasn't until I had a boy (after two girls) that I realized how delusional this advice was...boys don't sit still. Ever. Boys VS Girls—is it nature or nurture?
Both my girls, were (and still are) quiet kids. They prefer art activties over sport challenges. They colour, craft and bake with reckless abandon. My son colours on walls. And furniture. And himself. We have realized that this boy is simply going to do the oppositie of everything our girls have done.
And my—un-expert—presumption...it's nature.
Same parents. Same genetics. Same child rearing. The math in this equation hasn't changed (ok, add in older parents and more siblings). Nature has it that my boy is just more peppy than my girls.
Boys really don't sit still do they? I apologize to all my mom friends of boys (oh, how you must have rolled your eyes at my crayon suggestions).
I gifted my son a toddler trampoline for his second birthday to try to harness some of that boy energy. So far...work in progress.
Where my girls sat at the kitchen table, my son yells "DOWN."
Where my girls read books, my son throws them.
Where my girls sat in the grocery cart, my son hangs off of it singing "weeeeeeee."
Just when I thought I had this parenting thing down, it all changed and I became a newbie once more.
I am learning there is not one magic activity to entertain a child. As parents, we need to recognize the activity needs of our kids, and meet them as best we can.
That trampoline—it's meeting a need. Just as those crayons did.
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