Wednesday, April 02, 2008
RAISING BOYS
Raising four growing boys has its own unique challenges. The house is never short of things like body-noises, sports talk, strange smells, their buddies and other "boy" things. And poor Lea, with raising four boys, it makes everything in our home exactly opposite of what Lea is. Lea is quiet, and they are anything but quiet. Lea smells nice, and they smell like boys. Lea is neat and tidy, and the boys are a little on the messy side. She has manners at the table, and the boys don't (they're learning).Trying to teach them to be gentlemen when they eat has been a challenge. Some of the phrases we regularly have to say at the table are, "Don't eat with your hands;" "Don't eat until we pray;" "Don't talk with your mouth full;" and "You don't say something is nasty that you don't like, you just say you don't care for it!" All part of raising boys.
We have always made eating supper together as a family a priority. Not long ago, we'd just sat down to a nice supper. Lea had the table set beautifully and we'd just had the prayer. Everyone was eating quietly when little Cooper belted out a ground-shaking belch! Everyone looked up rather surprised at what had just come out of that little guy's body and to see what mom and dad were going to say about his slip. His momma looked over at him with a slight wrinkle on her forehead and said, "Excuse me Cooper, what are you supposed to say when you do that?" Cooper paused as if to think for a second and then replied with just a hint of excitement, "Wow, that was a good one, wasn't it Mom!?"
Not exactly the answer Lea was looking for!
"Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them." ~Psalm 127:3-4
Labels: Lea, Morgan Family, Parenting
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24 Comments:
Hey Trey - great story...what's bad is, it's not just boys. My little girl, sweet as she can be sometimes, can make the bodily noises just as good or better than her brother...and seems to take pride in it, even as I try to impress on her how "un"ladylike it is. She is only three, but at this rate she'll be giving her Daddy a run for his money soon!
Have a great day!
Trey,
I was hoping those phrases didn't have to be repeated daily until they were out of high school. Thanks for the good news.
Trey,
I have two daughters (7 and 5) and a son (4). We try to set the same guidelines at the dinner table as well. Unfortunately, the belching is confined to boys, nor are the thoughts that it is cool.
Great story.
We were in San Felipe, Mexico one year on a mission trip to build a house and toward the end of the trip we went to the beach for a cookout, devo and fireworks. Somewhere in the mix some of the kids got into a belching contest and the winner was one of the sweetest girls in the youth group. Who would have known? Great story, Trey! You have a one in a million wife with Lea. One day it will all finally click with those boys. One day...
Trey,
I hope it is not wrong that I laughed my tail off!! When my son was 2, I would say "Good boy" as a joke everytime he belched. That would soon end until about a year and half later when he belched in front of his mom and she asked him what he should say, he said proudly, "Good Boy." Mean while, his 2 year old sister was laughing her little head off and looking at her brother as if he king of the world. Sorry, Lea, I can only imagine what strength it must take to handle "men thing" like that!
Steve in AZ
good one, i shared that with the wife. God bless Lea.
I have to say Maude has her brothers beat. I hoping maybe one day it will be reversed. I fully expected to be dealing with the boys on the belching and farting but it is sweet little ole Maude. She even Moons us and says 'I see the moon and the moon sees you.'
Thanks for the warning.
My Dad raised us in a sea of estrogen. Four women, and just him representing the male half of our species. We even had to only get male pets because he said he didn't want to be any more outnumbered than he already was. They eventually adopted my little brother, but the damage was done.
Now it seems I am doomed to raise my munchkin in a sea of testosterone. There's been one girl born into my husband's family in the last 50 years. And everyone has 3 or 4 kids. Darn paybacks. :)
"don't eat with your hands"???
No wonder they're so messy.
My son is the same. Unfortunately, I think he gets it from me:)
i loved this post and the story....with another boy on the way..I can only imagine what our house is going to be like...but atleast I have ONE little girl to keep things alittle GIRLY around here....kids are great at fun...
I love it...I have two boys (1 and 3) and I know it is just starting. Love the pic and the scripture...
Hilarious! I would love a houseful of boys!! My 3 year old will say "excuse me" when he burps, but he still busts out in hysterical laughter.
"excuse me" is something I need to use 500 times a day? When is it time to break away from it.
I agree with most of the others. It isn't any better with girls. Ask my parents, Emily & I can probably compete with any boy on the belching contests (maybe because we were raised with all my dad's basketball teams.) I think Cooper's response was quite humerous, but definitely not what Lea was lookig for.
I always teach Brie's brother that the bodily functions are perfect when hanging out with the guys, but not real good in front of girls. I will teach my son this "gem" some day, too. Unfortunately, my sisters-in-law (both in their 20s) really break up my chivalry argument some times. They can definately best me when it comes to bodily noises. Oh well - maybe I can at least teach Noah not to do it on his first date or in front of his future in-laws someday.
When Evan was a little guy, I asked him the same ? one time and his reply was AHHHH! Of course Donald said don't look at me, my brother Joe taught him that. To this day Uncle Joe still gets reminded of being in trouble for that and at 25 Evan still says AHHHHH! Oh well,life was/is never dull with our boys. Roxie
Hang in there Lea!
I grew up around boys mostly so... we rate the body noises on a scale of 1 - 10. Of course, girls don't make those noises but we can still give ratings!
Trey,
Missed seeing you at Tulsa. I kept an eye out for you even. Glad you got to go. It was our first, but will definately not be our last. Thanks for sharing the story. The only one not dainty, I'm ashamed to say, in my family....is me.
Have a great week.
Lance Dickerson
Um, I have two of the sweetest little girlie girls and that sounds pretty much exactly like dinner at my house! : )
Can Josh come eat with you guys? I am sure he would enjoy his meal more if he were in the presence of other boys doing the same thing. At least he wouldn't have to be the only one on the receiving end of all of those comments. It is interesting that from a young age, the girls mastered table manners without us even having to teach them.
Cute story and I am glad Josh is in the norm.
dil
OK, I wasn't going to share this but I just have to. After a couple of references to last night's lasagna creating a funny feeling in our preacher's stomach during the sermon, a little toddler boy let out a huge belch after the conclusion and before the song. You could hear everyone whispering "There's last night's lasagna" and the whole crowd giggled. We may not remember the sermon, but we'll remember the belch.
dil
I raised 5 girls and 2 boys and I had a couple of girls who could out burp any boy. I certainly didn't encourage it. I never learned how to burp. I'm a lady don't you know? I'll bet Lea doesn't do that either. I enjoyed the story anyway. gmj
Thanks for visiting my blog.
Our little girl and her big brother often try to belch in harmony if they can.
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