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SALT LAKE CITY — As I made my way toward my oldest son's soccer game, while holding both my baby and a fussy toddler, and followed closely by my 4- and 6-year-old sons, I was devastated. The field we were assigned to was eons away from the park that I was hoping to let my younger kids play on while I watched the game.
Before I could look for a plan B, my 2-, 4- and 6-year-old sons were walking on a pile of rocks that they had to climb through a small cast iron fence to get to. The rocks were part of a dried-up, manmade river bed, of sorts, that had a cement tube that went under a small paved bridge.
For the next good while — even as I pleaded for them to stop and worked to drag them away — those three little boys walked along those rocks and talked to each other through the cement tube, all the while laughing and having a good time. During the whole endeavor, I only once had to pull a needle from my 2-year-old's ankle after he walked a little too close to a cactus plant. Seconds later, he was back at it.
As I stood there, I tried my best to be a step, jump and an arm's-length away while my boys were teetering between “all of their skin and bones intact” and an ambulance drive to the nearest hospital.
While delicately balancing life and death, I got my share of stares from passers-by. Each look was met with me admitting, "They're mine," and then most people would laugh and keep moving.
There was one response, however, that I got not once, not twice, but five times. “Boys will be boys,” they’d say. One person told me how he had three sons, and their home was a regular fight cage and mess hall. Each time, I’d smile and nod because yes, yes boys like to do things like climbing on rocks and fences and teasing cacti — but not all boys, and certainly not all of my sons.
I have seven sons and two daughters, and I have seven brothers myself. We may have tipped the scales on the XY chromosome combo in our family, but it’s not just the boys who make messes, and many of them are quite tidy.
As a boy mom, I have learned that “boys will be boys” applies to many things:
- “Boys will be boys” applies to my sons who love to bake AND are great at cleaning up their food mess.
- “Boys will be boys” is something to be said when my sons come inside crying for a bath because they can’t stand having grass or mud on their feet.
- “Boys will be boys” comes in the form of an older brother hugging his younger sibling when he or she is sad.
- “Boys will be boys” is a phrase that describes when my son nails his double aerial as the only boy in his tumbling class.
- “Boys will be boys” is my favorite term to use when my sons make me love notes for no reason whatsoever, or when they give me a hug and a kiss and tell me I’m the best mom ever.
- And yes, “boys will be boys” most certainly applies to the beeline to the rock pile that is riddled with cacti.
What are your favorite “boys will be boys” moments? Let us know in the comments.
More from Arianne Brown:
The spoon in my laundry room and other odd discoveries
On a recent morning, I awoke to a curious sight: There was a spoon in my laundry room. While I’m clueless as to how it got there, I know I'm not alone in my plight of finding odd things strewn across my home (likely left there by kids).
