We just got the official news: we're having a baby boy! Cece has been telling us from day 1 that it's a boy, and we've been telling her it might be a girl and she always insisted it's a boy. At our ultrasound yesterday, the tech said, "Well, your daughter's right. It's a boy." It was so thrilling to hear those words, and it's funny because it would have been equally as thrilling to hear, "It's a girl!" I'm really excited to see the difference between raising girls and boys, but I'm also a little nervous. This is going to sound really neurotic, but I've seen moms go crazy when their sons get married. I'm convinced this is a biological response that will probably get the best of me too when our son gets married. I know--talk about worrying about things that haven't happened. Time and time again, mothers of sons get protective in a way they don't with their daughters and it gets ugly. So my ongoing goal for raising my son is to teach him how to do everything for himself. In fact, I'll raise him the same way we're raising our daughter in that we teach her to do things for herself and be strong and loving. I'm way overthinking the difference between girls and boys. I had a grandma growing up who is deceased now who clearly preferred my brother to us sisters simply because he was a boy. So now I'm hell-bent on making sure my son doesn't get preferential treatment just because he's a boy. It wasn't my brother's fault--my grandma just happened to be old-school and thought boys were literally just superior to girls, so he would always get more money than we would and bigger holiday presents. So I guess that's sort of stuck with me and now that we're having a son, I'm reminded of it all again.
I really think Cece and her new brother will get along well. She's got a big tomboy side (the girl's favorite piece of clothing is a black David Bowie t-shirt). I like the idea of the two of them playing outside getting dirty together. I need to focus on those little visions instead of hoping I won't turn into angry over-protective mom one day.
As I'm sitting here I'm realizing what other sort of ugly baggage I have and the other part is that I've seen how horrible boys can treat girls since I've been on the receiving side of it. I think it's a huge task to teach our son how to treat women and be a gentleman, but I guess that answer to that is to make sure Trey and I have a loving relationship to set a good example.
Man, oh man, can I worry myself to the ground or what? As long as we all put family, love, and laughter first, we'll have a good chance of raising great kids. Most people worry they'll have enough money. Well, I know we don't have a lot of money, so no sense in worrying about that. I'm more concerned that my kids will thrive and really take the world by its balls and have a lot of fun doing it.
No comments:
Post a Comment