Boys

[Trekhawk]

Aaawwww!!! **sniffle, sniffle**

It reminds me of my 4 older brothers a lot. (and me ) They used to build huge ramps in the alley that ran down the center of our block and would go one right after the other. If one crashed, the next usually didn't have time to stop and came down right on top! They spent a lot of time in the ER. I was a lot smaller so mine were only half as high, like 3 1/2' or so. I stopped for a few weeks after I jumped off one time and lost my front tire mid-air. Did a fork plant, stomach ate the handlebars, thought I'd never breathe again. Trip to ER showed nothing missing or out of whack. My Mom was having a nervous breakdown the entire time and got a little needle to help. My Dad just tried to convince them to take some extra guts out while we were there since I seemed to have more than my share for a 6 yo girl. Yeah, my Dad was the best!!

They also used to ride wheelies on the sea wall at The Pier in St. Pete, FL where I grew up. I as recall, it's about 3' wide and about 10' high from the water surface. First one to fall in, lost. They got me started when I was around 7. Had to wait until I was a strong enough swimmer. It's kinda hard to tread water when yer holding on to a Schwinn. I had a trick where I would hook my one foot on part of the frame so I had 2 free arms and one leg to stay up until the tow rope came. Never lost a bike though. I can still wheelie a dirt bike around the block. Ya never know when a talent like that could come in handy. (Total respect from my nephews.) Over the years, Mom's heard a lot of our stories after the fact but she still doesn't know about those rides. We'd probably still "get it" if ya know what I mean. Not so much from "you could've been hurt/drown from falling that far" as the fact that people used to pull small (3-5') sharks out of that water all the time when fishing.

They also built a go-cart and, geez, was she fast! No brakes of course, 'cause why would you ever want to slow down or anything?! A few ER visits there too. The worst one was when my oldest brother, Keith, ripped part of his heel off on the chain sprocket while standing on the back axle (barefoot) hitching a ride. Course he told the folks he cut it on a sharp rock. (Naw, they didn't believe him and yeah that was the end of the cart. Up until then, they thought it belonged to Sheldon and Randy down the street. ) We were what ya call frequent fliers in the ER.

Aaaaaahhh... the good old days. As you can see, I didn't have a shot in h*ll of being too girly-girly growing up. But, we all lived and I wouldn't give up those memories for anything.

So Moms of boys... Don't let them go too far but try to cherish their adventurous little-boy spirits while they've still got them.

-X.

X - thanks for sharing - what great stories. As a mum of three little boys I can really relate.

[lauraelmore1033]

My two boys are grown and gone, but they're always reminiscing about various times they almost managed to kill themselves without mom finding out. "ah, remember the time...Alex got hit in the head with a board while building the tree fort...scott put a nail through his finger...Those were the days, heh, heh, heh,". Meanwhile Mom's saying "WHAT?! WHEN?! HOW?!". The shocking little tales continue to roll out, so I'm beginning to think they are making them up just to get that reaction out of me (I hope, I hope, I hope)

[deena]

Girls! I have girls! Thank God there are moms out there who are cut out for boys, cuz I'm not one of 'em! God bless you all!

[Duck on Wheels]

Girls? You think girls are the solution? One of my colleagues tells of the time she was picking up her 4-year-old daughter from day care. Mom was inside putting the day's dirty clothes in a bag when in comes another mom, all panicked: "There's a child hanging at the top of the tree in front! You've got to save that child!" To which the day-care teacher responds by taking a calm look out the window and saying, "Oh, that's ok. That's just Irene." Irene, now age 13, still does Tae Kwando, gymnastics, and lots of tree-climbing.

[CyclChyk]

Girl Power!!!!

[Pax]

Girls! I have girls! Thank God there are moms out there who are cut out for boys, cuz I'm not one of 'em! God bless you all!

Count your blessings that your girls aren't anything like me. We moved constantly when I was a kid (military dad) so my brother and I were best buddies and extremely competitive...I can barely count the number of broken bones/stitches/abrasions/bloody noses I had growing up.

[Bad JuJu]

I can relate, Queen--I have a twin brother, and growing up, I was not to be outdone by him, nor he by me--constant string of injuries--my poor mom!

Now, I have no kids, but my husband is kid enough for me. As an example, not long ago I came home on a weekday afternoon and found that he and his buddy were taking turns using a neighbor's waverunner to pull each other around the bay in dh's sit-on-top kayak. Not that either of them didn't have chores to do....

[Python]

My son and his friends (he was 11 at the time) thought it was a good idea to catch as many frogs as possible and release them all over the house. The first I knew about it was when I was sitting in the bathroom and had a feeling something was watching me. There, in the bath was a rather large frog! Then I saw our cat playing with something beside the washing machine. Another frog. By now thinking something's going on here, I looked under the kitchen sink and about 5 frogs came hopping out. There were frogs in my wardrobe, frogs in my son's wardrobe, in the drawers just everywhere. I woke my son up (I had wondered why he'd volunteered to go to bed instead of me having to badger him to go to bed) and between us we rounded up probably about 30 frogs and released them back in the garden.

Good job I like frogs.

[margo49]

I have one son like this and my daughter was too 'til someone told her she was a girl. Tho' she still has her moments and will no doubt return to her "roots" when she goes into the Army next year.
The older boy is The New Man in the best sense of that

[mimitabby]

my little boys graduated from climbing trees to climbing rock walls. They do a lot of things nowadays that I would rather not know about "lalalallalalala" (hands over ears)

My younger son was a repeat visitor to the ER. You did what with your what?

my husband rode a hot wheels (you know the kind that says "Not safe for people over 65 pounds) down a steep hill and messed up his shoulder. With a role model like him....

I agree, that's a fake frog. A real one would have been fighting to get out of that mouth!

[run it, ride it]

Puh. My brother took up tame activities like computer games and Lego.

I, on the other hand... well, it all started at age two when my mother found me floating face-down in the hot tub. Apparently I wanted to learn how to swim. By age three I was already climbing trees as tall at the house. I nearly drowned in an undertow when I was five.

Had too many close calls on rollerblades and saved up for a skateboard instead. MUCH safer--you can bail. But still... my knee will never heal after that pot hole incident. At age eight I wandered off and got myself lost on an uninhabited island for seven hours.

The day my father agreed to buy me a horse, that horse threw me off three times and sent me to the hospital. This had absolutely no bearing on my still being ecstatic to own said creature. The horse has flipped on me three times and landed on me twice. I don't even remember how many concussions I'm up to. Had to get stitches in my lip last winter after I hit some sheet metal going under a doorway. Oh, and we totally got stuck in a swamp Never-Ending Story style. "Where have you been? And why are you both covered in mud?" Oh well, better than the times the horse has come galloping back to the barn without me altogether.

At age twelve I ran into a brick wall and chipped half my front tooth. When I took up fencing, I took an epee to the cheek; no, no, we weren't sparring. We thought it was a good idea to try and throw our gloves into a basketball net with our swords. I took a toenail to the same cheek sparring in Taekwondo.

I got hit by a car on my bike on my way to work at age thirteen. Turned an ankle running at night in a foreign country; I determinedly hobbled two miles on pure adrenaline before I let someone rescue me. Couldn't walk for two weeks afterward. Fell flat on my face last month for no good reason. Broke my foot moving a shelf. Broke my arm falling two feet off a couch, got a bone bruise on my knee trying to hurdle it. Fell off a treadmill last year and have bits of it permanently embedded in my calf.

The list goes on and on.

The ER staff in my university town practially know me by name. At home, both my parents work at the medical centre--good thing, too!

No, no. I am DEFINITELY the child my parents worry about.

[Grog]

Run It, Ride it:

You rock!!!

[CyclChyk]

geez RUN IT - if you were a cat you'd be dead......

Glad to hear you survived it all.