It's time to reclaim - Boys will be Boys!
As you know - I'm the Mama of a boy. He's sweet and gentle, he has good manners and as I've mentioned before that he's such a typical boy.
I see him playing with cars, making fart jokes or eating me out of house and home and I think 'boys will be boys.' I'm still amazed that I have a little boy that is playing and growing, being muddy and is running around like a crazy person!
For example - I took him to the local Officeworks recently and he made Robot Arms. Typical boy.
Then recently I came across this image (below) - Oh and how it made my blood boil. Well of course boys should be held accountable - that doesn't mean they aren't boys. My boy is held accountable and he's a boy. We're clever like that! The flaw in the logic is that this image seems to suggest that it has to be one or the other......how daft!
Anyway, what is wrong with boys being boys? Boys are fun and energetic and crazy. I love that my boy is a typical boy and I adore that boys will be boys. Why can't they be what they are, when he and his friends go straight for the lego, or for the their cars or giggle over the word butt.
I get so sick and tired of people saying what our boys and girls should NOT be. It's bad for boys to be boys. It's also bad for boys to love blue or for people to buy cars and trucks for a little boy. I had a good go at the gender issues of pink and blue in this blog post over here.
So I posted the image on the Lucas loves cars FB page and had a little RANT ( a little bit like the one I have just had here! ) It probably would have ended there but then other things happened...
One of the comments on the FB post had someone mentioning that this phrase is often used to condone bad behaviour. It started me thinking about why that happens.....and THEN Eddie Maguire was rude to Caroline Wilson on live radio and everyone had an opinion. Amongst the hours and pages of commentary on the topic I heard someone say 'It was shrugged off as boys being boys'. NOOO!!! No wonder people hate this phrase if it is being heralded as an excuse for bad behaviour!
When someone is disrespectful or rude it's not them showing typical boyish behaviour. It is that person being rude and disrespectful. We have to stop using this saying as a cover up of the bad behaviour. 'Being a boy' is not an excuse, and it should never be a justification for bad behaviour!
IT HAS TO STOP! We need to pull up the people who use this gorgeous phrase as a negative. Being a boy is a beautiful thing. For the multitude of boy traits BOYS WILL BE BOYS is a fun, silly and appropriate comment.
Let's not throw it away or allow it to be turned into something negative.
Boys will be boys!
Are you with me? Lets post fun and silly photos of our boys being boys and use the #boyswillbeboys hashtag. Let's make it a great thing again!
Vroom.
- Helle.
As a little addendum - I know that girls will be all the things that I have listed above. I know it and love it. This is not about how girls are treated, for the record I'm happy for them to be whatever they like. This is about treating boys and girls as equals.
