TomGirl

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Having a son who is in touch with his emotions is both a curse and a blessing.
It’s all fun and games when he’s making me look beautiful, but not so fun when he refuses to go anywhere that is “more than 4 miles away from our house” because he’ll “miss his one and only mother TOO bad.” (his words, people, his words)
It’s precious when he cries on rainy days because he feels sorry for the homeless people or when he cries during sad movies, or at the end of sad songs. Not so precious when I tell him to STOP TELLING ON HIS BROTHER ALREADY and he responds with “Oh, so I’m not supposed to care if my brother mistreats me?” To which I respond with “Well, you have to grow some thicker skin.” To which he responds with “Mom, I’m SENSITIVE, I can’t help it, I was BORN this way!!”
I love that he’s sensitive, I just wish he wasn’t SO sensitive. I love that he’s not ashamed to cry about things that hurt him or make him sad. I love that he thinks girls are the greatest thing in the world and that it’s his job to be “The Protector of Girls”, I love that he’ll play with the girls and not care if Andrew makes fun of him because, well, he can’t help it if he’s a “tomgirl”. I love that he is who he is and doesn’t care what anyone thinks. I’m so proud of him for that.
That said, it’s hard not to get upset when he’s telling on his brother for the 80th time because his brother “hurt his feelings”. I mean, come on, since when do boys HAVE FEELINGS? (Kidding! Sort of. No, really! Kidding!)
I don’t want to paint the wrong picture of my son here, because he’s NOT a crybaby, he’s one of the funniest, toughest, most outspoken little boys I’ve ever known. He’s just very in touch with his feelings and extremely in tune with his emotions. I just don’t quite know how to handle one’s “sensitive side” when the one in question was just talking about poop, farts,bungholes and really hot girls five minutes earlier.

7 thoughts on “TomGirl”

  1. ginger

    Well, as a girl, half the time I’m talking about farts and bunghole poop as well. Consider his personality a reflection of your goodness (the sensitive side) and humor (the bunghole/farts/poop/hotgirs side!)

  3. Darleen

    Nothing wrong with his having his sensitive side, but that’s not what’s behind his tattling.
    It’s a kind of manipulation thing, and not unknown in the younger (or youngest) kidlet of the family. It’s a way he gets power over his brother (and in a way over you…)
    With four daughters, I had to nip it in the bud early or I would have been in a nice quiet room dressed in one of those fashionable jackets with the extra long sleeves long ago. 🙂
    I told ’em “no tattling” and I defined it as non-serious things they needed to work out for themselves and I would not get involved unless things got physical or something dangerous was going down. And any tattler that broke the rules would get punished herself.
    Little girls can get vicious in their shrillness, but without an adult they can “use” they soon figured out how to handle their differences on their own.
    Yes, I kept an eye on the goings on..but very discreetly.
    That said, I’ll second ‘girl’ above… he will be an excellent boyfriend (and from what I saw, a very handsome one, too!)

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