Velcrometer
Throwing stuff at the internet to see what sticks
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M. Giant's Velcrometer Throwing stuff at the internet to see what sticks |
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Friday, March 18, 2011 Pat Down M. Edium’s lab partner came over to finish up their science project this morning, and she was bursting with exciting news, as they do at that age. It was all about how a leprechaun had been to their house overnight to drop off candy and toys and a cache of gold coins for St. Patrick's Day. Now, we do Santa and the Easter Bunny and we'll do the Tooth Fairy and of course we've done the Birthday Demon, but we don't do any of that leprechaun crap. At all. We've never even heard of it. I barely remembered to put a green shirt on him before kindergarten to keep him from getting pinched. I remember a few years ago when I started to read a book about raising boys that says we tend to socialize all of their emotions out of them but anger. Enough of the rest of that first chapter was bullshit that I bailed on the book that very night, but that's always stuck with me. Our culture is one that doesn't really encourage boys to express their emotions. Is it only a matter of time before M. Edium becomes shut down and repressed? "I'm pretty jealous about that," he said forthrightly. If it's a matter of time, it's plenty of time. "Well, that's what happens when you're Irish," Trash told him. "And you're pretty Swedish." "Just wait till St. Olaf's Day, though," I said, dredging up some vague memory of my sister saying something about it when I was a kid that she may have been making up in the first place. "St. Olaf brings it." After they got to work on the science project, Trash sent me to sneak out the back and head up to Walgreens for some last-minute St. Patrick's Day stuff. I figured I'd get it on clearance, but it had already been cleared. I had to settle for some green gumdrops, a little box of green Easter Peeps, and a General Grievous action figure with two lightsabers, one of which is green. After his lab partner left, we gave this sad little collection of gifts to him and told him the truth about where they'd come from, because who wants to deal with that leprechaun blarney every year? Besides his lab partner's parents, obvs. He was happy about the action figure and his favorite candy, which is good, although he's inevitably going to get socialized out of showing his appreciation for Peeps no matter what we do. Also, I think that book was wrong about boys not being in touch with emotions. Embarrassment is an emotion that comes to you when you get older, after all. And I'm pretty sure I saw him show some clear signs of it when I was going on about St. Olaf. posted by M. Giant 8:46 AM 1 comments 1 Comments:Oh, Lord, my mother gave me a book that I think is the same one. Oy. I found out that my old school district gives a copy to all of the teachers, so, yikes. God, I hope it's the same one; who needs more than that?
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