Just another day of childhood
Yesterday SK had 2 friends; 13 and 15yo brothers, over to our home, the first time these boys have been here. SK met the guys at his hs social club; the one connected with our huge hs support group. For months they have been wanting to get together but school, co-ops and other life happenings have gotten in the way. Finally it did happen though and they came over. I left the boys alone, popped onto email, and found an email from MK’s best friend’s mom asking for him to come over for the afternoon. What great timing! MK headed over to MusicKid’s home and returned just in time for dinner.
SK and his friends spent the afternoon playing air hockey, laser tag, Carcassonne, ate munchies while chatting with me about school—hs’ing of course, family, Christmas and never once mentioned videos, PC games, or anything related to pop culture. They stayed for dinner and after 7hrs in our home went back to theirs. It was a really nice afternoon having these boys here. Our neighborhood is full of boys SK’s age but he won’t join them in their games. He doesn’t care for their discussions about videos, PC games, pop culture, ‘other things’, and their language to each other. I have respected his decision and over the years have always been very pleased with the people he has chosen to call as his friend.
This morning I read my email and from my one Yahoo email loop I read the NY Times article Middle School Girls Gone WIld. Whew, am I glad my boys are missing out on seeing this type of behavior by being hs’ed. I know you gals probable know this already but I found the article interesting, in a very sad way. I’m glad I’m missing out on this part of PS life, glad my boys are missing out on it too.
And if Carcassonne is a game you haven’t heard of, do check it out. We’ve had many afternoon or evenings of fun with this strategy game.
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December 30th, 2006 @ 12:12 pm
Great post! I can tell you, as a parent of two college age children, that this scenario is SO prevelent. I’m lucky that my kids were put off by such blatent sexuality, but nonetheless, they were witness to it at all levels of ps. This was one of the factors leading to my decision to hs my youngest, who was 7 at the time. Once you’ve seen it, you just don’t want to repeat the same old story. I am totally with you! Let’s let our kids have as lengthy a childhood as possible. It only gets harder as you go.
December 30th, 2006 @ 1:51 pm
Thanks
— you id’ed what I liked about yesterday; kids being kids in good ol’e fashion childhood fun.
Happy New Year!
December 30th, 2006 @ 2:44 pm
Carole,
I am pretty sure that you know I teach middle school (?). Anyway, this is a pretty common occurence at our school. We just had our winter dance, and most of the time the chaperones had to spend their time watching the behavior of the girls. The boys usually don’t get this way until 8th or 9th grade. But it will happen eventually. How they react has a lot to do with the friends they chose to be with. Sounds like you have done a great job of getting your boys interested in the “right” things with the “right” people. Keep up the good work!