Boys

Last night I spent about an hour and a half in the emergency room with Joshua. He has a brawler's fracture which was acquired when his right fist met Jacob's right eye in a brawl over yet another nameless thing. What is it about boys that causes them to want to start with hitting first? How many dozens of times must I reiterate that this is not appropriate behavior - to hit someone? I sunk to my lowest level in trying to get the point across to the boys - we left the Ogre's den because he thought hitting was appropriate - deserved - necessary - as a means of getting his anger across. I told them that if they wanted to live that way, they could go back.

Most frustrating is that there is some "acceptance" of this behavior. I have been reassured repeatedly that boys will be boys - that is a load of crap. A person cannot always control the emotion - but you can control what you do about it. Why do we tolerate this and then act surprised about bar brawls and drive by shootings?

This will be a hard lesson for Josh - and I don't think we are there yet. The carpal is broken off and sitting at a diagonal angle according to what we saw on the x-ray. It is splinted now, but will have to be set at the orthopedic surgeon's office. And that is not going to be fun - high pain tolerance or not. The other part is that this ordeal is going to cost me about $150 in co-pays - possibly more. The boys will have to earn that money in labor for me over the next week and a half. Unfortunately for them, we have a lot that needs to be done - so I am going to get my money's worth from them.

At times I am just exasperated that I continue to deliver the same messages to the kids and they don't hear it. It was embarrassing to show up and explain that I am so inadequate as a parent that my kids think it is alright for them to hit one another. Someday they will be grown, and this phase will be over, but today, in the midst of it, it seems like it will never end.