Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Boys vs. Girls


This having a boy in school thing is a whole lot different than having girls in school. When the day is done and my girls get home, they are ready to chat up a storm about the goings on that happened during the day. ("What's-his-name colored all over the school walls and got sent to the principal. I just can't believe he would ruin the school like that. My teacher was so angry."...and on and on we go. Or, "Somebody wouldn't leave me alone at recess. She drives me nuts and just won't give me break. I try to be nice to her, but sometimes I just need a break from her. But she will grab onto my clothes to make me stay with her and then so-and-so tries to grab my other arm and...." blah, blah, blah.) With Carter, I have to pry and pry and pry to get ANYTHING out of him at all.

We have this tradition in our family where each kid tells something funny, something good, and something bad that happened at school. I started doing this when Halle started kindergarten as a way to open the door to conversation. It really helped. Instead of "What did you do today?" with the answer of "Nothing," or "I can't remember", I get all sorts of stories from my girls.

But Carter is a little bit different. I ask the questions and get the exact same answers everyday.
"Carter, what was something funny today?"
"My pants almost fell down, but I caught them." (EVERYDAY!)

"Carter, what was something good that happened today?"
"I was good in class." (EVERYDAY!)

"Carter, did anything bad happen today?" (Usually this gives opportunities to talk about a bad grade or behaviour with my girls.)
"I wasn't bad." (Occasionally I'll hear about so-and-so who hit so-and-so, but that's the extent of the conversation.)

I am learning that boys just don't really care about all the nitty gritty details. And if I want to hear about them, I have to ask very specific questions. For instance,

"Carter, did you do any work that you liked today?"
"Yah, tracing."
"What did you trace?"
"I had to trace a t.v. and then color it."

Ahhhhh....finally some details!

It truly is amazing how different boys are from girls. It's with them from birth and just the way God created them.

5 comments:

Gina said...

Nope. Not here.
1 boy and 2 girls and I get nothin!
And, frankly, that's fine with me, because the one I homeschool talks enough all day long to make up for the rest of them....

Mama Williams said...

LOL! We had the same problem with preschool and now Mr. Chatty won't quit! He talks about EVERYTHING and Nothing all at once. It's my girls that now won't say anything...let me know if they change on you in a couple more years too. :)
P.S. Some boys just don't care about the details sound like Carter is one of them. Good thing he has you as a MOM.

The Manwarings said...

I'm so glad he caught his pants from falling down so it didn't end up in the wrong category! That Carter- what a cutie!! Your kids just crack me up.

Lisa said...

yeah, i remember that same tradition in my family growing up...even in high school. we'd come home, sit around the table with Mom, eat a treat, and chat about school. i hope my boys turn out to be "talkers."

Tonya said...

That is so funny, I was thinking the same thing today. All the way home Callie was just talking my head off and I remember thinking. I had to drag information out of Colton.

Except just wait when they get older, Carter will all of a sudden just hit you with a whole bunch of information and you need to make sure that you are listening when it happens, usually it is after an evening out and close to midnight. LOL... But I am so glad he was ablt to keep his pants up.

Cute blog :)