Feeling Better About Boys

I must say I have been most appreciatively inundated with happy congratulations on our boy news. This was most unexpected, since most people thought I would have a girl (being such a girly-girl, quasi-feminist, whatnot and so on, myself).

My friend Jill e-mailed me her congratulations and comforted me with the good-natured thought that “boys are easier, trust me I have one boy and two girls!” Others have popped out of the woodwork to say how wonderful boys are.

This has reassured me to no great end, since I am only a little terrified to become a parent to a boy.

Being on only child, I had little experience with babies and no experience with little boys at all. My first experience with boys, as a child, was not favorable (see The Bully Chronicles at right). So, I am doubly grateful so many of my friends and family members have boys and are willing to share their experiences and advice.

One of my co-workers offered this little gem, “He may have one more thing to clean, but by golly, he’ll steal your heart from the second you lay eyes on him.”

So I am most steadfastly waiting to have my heart stolen. Although, if I’m honest, he’s got most of it already.

I am among three women in our church who are pregnant. The three of us run into each other more and more (made easier by the expanding waistlines), and this last time, I joked we should have a photo taken together and entitle it, “Generations.”

The youngest of us is 25 and having her first baby. I’m 30 (ouch!) and having my first baby, as well. The other woman is “over 35” and having her fifth child (I almost accidentally typed fiftieth, Lord have mercy).

We may be all over the map with our ages and experiences, but I’ve sincerely enjoyed having these women with whom I can compare pregnancy-woes-and-wonder. The fact that we share the same faith and the same warm, loving church family intensifies those feelings of camaraderie and sisterhood.

A few Sundays ago, we were standing around and chatting. Another dear friend was with us, holding her 10 month old daughter. During the course of conversation, it was revealed to me that BOTH of my pregnant friends are having girls.

This was before it had been officially confirmed we are having a boy, but I was assuming it, anyway.

One of the women asked me if I was “going to join the girl club.”

I told them how I thought the baby was most likely a boy. “I’ll be kind of sad if I can’t join the club,” I joked with the other women.

“Well, now, I don’t know about that,” said one of my friends. “Just think. When he’s a teenager in youth group, he’ll have his pick of beautiful girls to date!”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way,” I said, laughing.

On the way back home, I was relaying the funny story to Brett. Being the proud, manly papa bear he is, he puffed up slightly at the thought of his son dating.

“Well, let’s hope he doesn’t have to wait as long as his dad to find the right one,” said my husband who married at the age of 31.

Then he looked at me and smiled, “Hopefully, he’ll be as lucky as his dad when it comes to women.”

So, it appears that any charm our little Sam possesses will most likely come from his dad.

Fathers, plan on locking up your daughters in, oh, about 16 years!