Parenthood.. raising a boy..

Having a kid has made me do things I never imagined I would. I nurture other people's kids. I can be talking to an adult and wiping snot off his kid's mouth. I'm grabbing boogers out of some kid's nose and wiping them underneath the table or on the couch. Hey - either I do it, or he will. Dragon and I are now pondering, whether raising a boy would be any different from raising a girl. Do girls get into trouble? Generally, they don't.

Girls are more likely to be doing useless things like studying or going to after college function to develop their social skills! Skills that don't prepare them for important things, like toilet-papering houses. Now, where's that going to get them?

They like reading romance novels under bedcovers at night.
Reading?
But reading what? Nancy Drew meets J.K Rowling?

Boys, well.. they always get into trouble. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. I have been a kid before so I knew. Boys learn early that we can't get a girl without a car and/or prison record. A good grade point average in your class or memorised parts in Shakespear can't compete with riding a motorcycle. When the girl's parents said, "I don't like that Alaz, he drives that bike." you knew you were in.

And I am not talking about serious heisting here. Just kid stuff, like as boys sometimes we borrowed our parent's car without asking. Now, I didn't do this, of course, to the best of their knowledge. But between you and me, I did take their car around the Subang Jaya neighbourhood once and my heart beat so fast and so hard that I thought it would burst out of my chest. Suddenly that's all I could think about. I started freaking out. If it came through my chest, I 'd probably look down and try to stuff it back in or something. And while I was looking down, some neighbour lady walking her doggy poodle would, at that very moment decide to cross the street, and when I'd look up - "Oh, my God" - with the manuevering skill of Michael Schumacher the junior, I'd swerve out of her way just in time and plow right into lawns, front gates and small gardens before I hit 2 rubbish bins and back on the road. I sped home and spent the rest of the day recovering.

What goes around comes around. I have 2 kids growing up now.

Here's the big difference between boys and girls at the age when everyone is looking for action - from my point of view. Take 2 cars, put 4 girls in one car and 4 guys in the other and you send them both out to get a six pack of beer and tell them to be back at midnight.

The girls will probably back by eleven o'clock. One beer is half empty and warm, with lipstick on the rim. The car is cleaner that when you left it, it smells like a mix of Chanel and gossip. Everyone's chatting happily and planning how to get together soon for dinner.

The guys - if they ever come back - one is missing, there's a little blood and no one's talking. The beer's gone, a second six pack is also empty, some liquor bottles are hidden in the backseat. There are butt prints all over the windows, a tire is flat. One fender's all dented and a big piece of animal parts is strapped on the hood, probably belongs to a cat or a cow that they hit on the way back..

Two different worlds.