Thursday, April 22, 2010

Growing up a boy

One aspect of child development I have never understood is the perception that girls mature quicker than boys. Now, being the age that I am, I have generally been around many boys and girls, having nieces and nephews, children around the neighborhood, and in my line of work seeing young people come and go in their first jobs in the working world. (At this point I will not be speaking about the physical aspects of maturing).

What brought this to mind was sitting through an episode of 'America's Next Top Model'. Yes, unfortunately I do not control the remote in my abode. That task belongs to My Beloved, although without her at home I rarely watch much television so what is actually on the screen is usually of little interest to me. I don't know what streets they drag these 'models' off of, however I have never seen a group of less sophisticated, urban-hip-wannabes in all my life. Practically none can speak without falling into street-slang mode and it is quite obvious the level of intellect is absurdly low. To be fair, every so often there are one or two that are educated and they easily stand heads and shoulders above the rest as it pertains to the interview segments. If these are what today's parents are churning out, I would hate to see a similar show casting boys. (There may be one but I don't know about it).

I know these are not the typical girl walking the streets. But what are we claiming as maturing? Boys and girls entering and growing through their teen years gravitate in different directions. Most believe girls are smarter and study while boys just play sports. Girls communicate to a higher degree than boys. I'm here to tell you (wow, that sounded like my parents) that's just not the case. Likely boys communicate as well, just differently as they tend to join more team activities than girls. It's more available to them. I think girls tend to be much more cliquish, generally drawn to smaller and more intimate groups than boys. To say boys don't study and achieve draws an inaccurate picture of how boys mature.

Have you ever listened to a group of teen girls chatting? The term boy-crazy doesn't do it justice. Yes, boys have their own rituals in speaking of girls but it's no less immature than girls.

Someday I hope someone explains this theory to me; I just don't believe it. Perhaps The Moustache will weigh in to his younger bro' an splain how the real world works as that is more along the lines of his chosen field of endeavor.

3 comments:

  1. Sainted Mother always said that boys wear their hearts on their sleeves and girls are sneaky. Being the only girl, I thought that was mean. I do, however, now understand, as I have one boy and three girls. Depends on the child and the standards they are held to. My oldest often says our household is like being raised as a throw-back to another time. Church, homework, chores, sports, scouts. Works for me - the opportunities are there if you are willing to take the challenges and not settle for what the rest of the world thinks of as normal. We're weird! Yippee!

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  2. Who'd a-thunk it? Weirdos from The Land of Fruits and Nuts!

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  3. Apparently, we're weird, even by Land of Fruit and Nuts standards because we try to have old-fashioned standards. Some kinds of weird are good!

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