It's all fun and games....

I grew up in a family run by the women.  By saying that I don't mean to imply that my mom was an overbearing, bossy woman or that my dad and brothers were weak men.  I mean that the oldest three children in our family were girls and the younger two were boys...and well, the oldest children kind of set the rules, right?  They set the tone for the family.  Growing up we played princess and superwoman a lot.  We played family with our dolls, pioneers and wagons with our pull-out sofa and later, dating and marriage with our barbies.We dressed our brother just younger than us in girl clothes, put makeup on him and curled his hair.  We watched sappy movies.  Of course, our favorite activity (well, not as a little girl but as a teenager)...shopping.

Brad grew up in a family run by the boys.  He had two older brothers and one younger sister.  Growing up  he too imagined...but his imaginations were of superheroes.  I'm POSITIVE he and his brothers never played pioneer.  They played outdoors a lot.  I did too, but in my memories I see the outdoors with grass and butterflies and in his I see the outdoors with water, dirt, fire and rocks.  Yes, there are some similarities between my stories and his, but there are also some stark contrasts.  I have squabbles dotting my memories over who was wearing whose clothing or who was in the bathroom too long, you know drama, but I can't ever recall having to prove myself in any way.  In my memories no one ever seems to get hurt or do crazy things.  Brad's, not so.  He has a story of being locked outside naked by his older brothers for hours while his parents were out running errands.  He found some scrap of cloth with which he partially covered himself with and went out riding his bike around the neighborhood to see if any of his friends were out playing.  He has a story of heaving big rocks in the lake, when one of the brothers decided to go for a swim resulting in a very bloody head wound and trip to the hospital.  Brad wasn't sure he or his brother would survive that one.  My personal favorite is his story of the time he and his brother decided to play chicken on their motorcycles.  You can imagine how that ended...broken leg and a year on crutches for Brad.  He actually claims he won.

For several years I thought the differences in the stories had to do with innate personality differences between his family and mine but after having four boys myself, I realize it has much less to do with that and much more to do with the inherent nature of boys.

With boys, it's all fun and games....

until someone gets bloody.



And that's just the way it is.