Occasionally, after way too much testosterone surrounding Hamish he immediately changes his behaviour to more cheeky, more competitive and his play became far more rough.
Now, as a mom of boys I 100% agree that there needs to be a time and space for boys to rough house, get that energy out and be able to compete and banter with each other in a healthy manner. It’s part of their DNA and when done in age appropriate settings with a strong emotional intelligence it really is just boys being boys.
And they need this.
Lessons
There are lessons they learn through this but as adults it’s our responsibility to help them set boundaries when it comes to:
- How they speak to and about others during these times and that words carry a tremendous power.
- How to control their emotions so that they do not hurt others in their play.
- How to remain respectful whilst expressing themselves.
- That roughhousing should never amount to physically hurting anyone.
- That the words stop and no mean Stop and no.
- That often following the crowd will gain you 5 minutes of popularity and a whole bundle of consequences.
- That apologizing is important.
- That the jokes we make, words we use and how we choose to adress others becomes a reflection of who we are. And those impressions are hard to change.
A means to express themselves
Boys need to express themselves, often more than girls and as moms we need to be open to the way in which our boys need to do this but mindfully guiding them to do so without hurting or being disrespectful to others.
And sometimes, this will make you an enemy in the eyes of your son and that is OK….you were never meant to be his friend. He will have plenty of those .
You were given the greatest responsibility to be his mother.
Some wise words here. “That often following the crowd will gain you 5 minutes of popularity and a whole bundle of consequences”