By: Angela Gillaspie ©1997-2017

Growing up with two sisters has me at a great disadvantage for raising boys; I know absolutely nothing about them. Given this information, I would like to share that I have been blessed with TWO sons and only one daughter. Since I am a female, I can impart my 'feminine wisdom' to my daughter, but my two boys are being raised by trial and error (mostly error). My youngest son is still an infant so this means his older brother is my experimental child.

Having an older sister instead of an older brother has left its mark on my eldest son. While I stayed at home during the first five months of his life, I was forced by a serious financial situation to return to work. His dad worked twelve hours a day plus most weekends, so all my son had to imprint upon was his older sister and myself. She is two years his senior and the coolest person he knows.

By not seeing his dad as often as he should, my son has picked up some interesting habits from his sister and myself. For example, anytime I put on my high-heeled shoes, he assumed that it was time to leave the house and go to work. He starting imitating this behavior; in the evenings, he would put on a pair of my heels, grab one of his sister's purple Barney purses, and thump down the hall yelling "Bye! I go to work now! C'mon get in the car!" My hubby was not amused.

My son got very jealous when I would pull up his sister's hair in pig tails or a pony tail in the mornings. "Do me! Do me!" he shouted. I would oblige him, placing a huge pink bow on the top of his head. He would proudly rush into Daddy's bathroom to show off his hair.

Daddy would get angry and take the bow out, stomp back in the bedroom and demand, "What the heck is THIS?!"

I calmly explained that it was an ornamental object that is commonly used to decorate the hair, often removing the hair from the eyes as it did so. My dear husband was not amused.

To make matters worse, right when my son turned three, I gave birth to my second son. With a house full of kids, there was no way for me to continue to work outside of the home and remain sane. I officially became a 'stay-at-home-mom'. Now my son could watch and learn for twenty-four hours a day, uninterrupted on how to be a mommy! Sister just started kindergarten, so she wasn't there for him to play with; he was forced to either play by himself or 'help' mommy in taking care of his infant brother. When he "helped" me, it was stealing the baby's pacifier, offering the baby Nacho Cheese Doritos, and rolling Hot Wheels off the baby's head. Since I usually ended up yelling "NO!" at him hundreds of times, he played by himself most of the time.

The perfect example of his play came one morning, right after I had laid the baby down for his nap. I heard my son playing in the next room with his sister's Barbie dolls. "This ought to be good," I thought, so I poured myself a cup of coffee and pretended to read a magazine while the drama unfolded in the living room. There was the Evil Barbie and the Good Barbie, and the dialog went something like this:

Evil Barbie: "Ah ha ha! I kill you I kill you!" (Scuffle sounds)

Good Barbie: "No you don't, I kill you first! Ah ha ha!"

Evil Barbie: "Oh no! You kill me! Ahhhhhh!" (A loud thump)

Good Barbie: "You OK?"

Evil Barbie: "I'm OK. You OK?"

Good Barbie: "Ahhhhh! I am dead! Take me to the hospital!"

Evil Barbie: "You dead? OK, you not dead any more. I kill you - I kill you!"

Good Barbie: "I kill you! I kill you more!" (Scuffle sounds) "You OK? I'm OK."

The Good Barbie was triumphant again. Daddy would probably have a fit if he knew that his son was playing with the Barbie dolls, but after listening to the exchange between the Barbies, I believe my husband would be (almost) proud. Being around mommy and big sister has helped the Barbies show compassion for one another. I am raising a sensitive guy! He noticed my chuckling from the kitchen and he put the Barbies down and retreated to find something else to play with.

This stage in his life will probably be over as soon as his younger brother takes an interest in trucks. By then, my two boys' most important goal in life will be to make their older sister's life as miserable as possible by thinking up the most crude, rude, and socially unacceptable things to offend her. The gender gap will widen and the social aspects of 'male roles' and 'female roles' will separate my daughter and sons. But for now, I am going to bask in the glow of my feminine influence and let him play with his sister's Barbies all he wants.

Stay tuned for more SouthernAngel's rants!