boys

I don't think I really recognized how much stuff I've avoided dealing with by only having boys until I read _Cinderella Ate My Daughter_ by Peggy Orenstein.  You see, despite the fact that I joke about living in the testosterone house, or being the only female in a house of guys (until C. and K. recently returned to their family, there were 8 males and me - now we're down to a mellow six males), my boys are growing up in a household without much in the way of rigid gender roles, or their toys.    Given the combination of no girls and no tv, I am only vaguely aware of phenomena like Miley…
Just as I was getting back in the swing of regular blogging again, I got quite a surprise - this afternoon we got called and asked to take an additional foster placement - a 2 day old newborn.  As I write this, I have a tiny, sweet little person asleep in my arms (it turns out that like riding a bicycle, you never forget how to type and hold a baby).   And yes, Z. is yet another boy!  I shoulda known - just when someone gave me a buttload of girl baby clothes and Barbies ;-). So, umm, if I don't post much in the next few days it is because I'm sleep deprived, drunk on new baby scent and…
When we bought the property, the creek was frozen over, and from the property survey, we weren't entirely certain that it would belong to us. We never realized that the pretty little body of water that passed along the north side of the house would become the center of four worlds. For the first few years that we lived here, we enjoyed the creek - my toddler children loved to visit with parents in tow, picking up stones or chasing frogs during summer, when the creek sank down to manageable levels. We enjoyed listening to its music through the open windows at night. We watched the birds…
I grew up in the days of the SNES and the Sega Megadrive. Even then, furious debates would rage about the harm (or lack thereof) that video games would inflict on growing children. A few decades later, little has changed. The debate still rages, fuelled more by the wisdom of repugnance than by data. With little regard for any actual evidence, pundits like Baroness Susan Greenfield, former Director of the Royal Institution, claim that video games negatively "rewire" our brains, infantilising us, depriving us of our very identities and even instigating the financial crisis. Of course, the fact…