Dateline yesterday....hanging with Y1 in The Family Truckster, after football practice, waiting for our carpool friend to come out of the locker room. Boys streaming everywhere...checking out the girls who are filing into the gym for the volleyball game. Cars jockeying for position in line and it is HOT!!! This heat NEEDS to break...it's sapping my soul! I see kids...some players, some younger siblings traversing the pavement barefooted. I don't get it...the pavement is HOT...it's been baking in the sun ALL day! Never mind the heat...what about the debris that often turns up in parking lots? Makes me want to scream!
Our carpool friend has yet to emerge from the field house when I realize that I am looking at one of the younger players...Y1 ID's the boy as being a 7th grader....standing in NOTHING but his skivvies! The child has stripped down to his draw's right there in front of God and a good portion of Oak Mountain! I covered my eyes and sort of yelp. Y1 is incredulous...and then he gets a little perturbed. Why the young man couldn't have changed into his street clothes in the locker room, I don't know. Why he felt it necessary to put on such a public display is beyond me! His mother was standing right next to him and I promise you, when I uncovered my eyes, the woman appeared to be laughing!
Laughing! Laughing at what is legally called "indecent exposure." Laughing at what is inappropriate behavior for an eleven/twelve year old individual. Y2 did that when he was four and while more likely to be age appropriate at that point, I didn't laugh! Made me wonder if she was one of those moms, one of those people who are sold out on the "boys will be boys" mentality? You know the type...they excuse irrational, illogical, inappropriate, irresponsible behavior by boys/men as nothing more than just a by product of the testosterone that courses through their bodies. There is some truth to that statement....boys/men are designed with an undeniable blue print. They are hardwired in such a way that certain behaviors and traits are all because of that Y chromosome. However, stupidity is not. Poor taste is not. Lack of self control is not. Poor judgement is not. At some point, we have to hold our boys accountable for their actions and the sooner the better, if you REALLY want to know the truth. We have to stop laughing and dismissing it as uncontrollable. Maintaining the idea that boys/men are subject to their uncontrollable urges lowers them to the level of our four legged friends. And that's just not right.
Sometimes being a people watcher comes back around to bite you in the rear...my only comfort is that my rear will be properly covered...less likely to leave marks!
Our carpool friend has yet to emerge from the field house when I realize that I am looking at one of the younger players...Y1 ID's the boy as being a 7th grader....standing in NOTHING but his skivvies! The child has stripped down to his draw's right there in front of God and a good portion of Oak Mountain! I covered my eyes and sort of yelp. Y1 is incredulous...and then he gets a little perturbed. Why the young man couldn't have changed into his street clothes in the locker room, I don't know. Why he felt it necessary to put on such a public display is beyond me! His mother was standing right next to him and I promise you, when I uncovered my eyes, the woman appeared to be laughing!
Laughing! Laughing at what is legally called "indecent exposure." Laughing at what is inappropriate behavior for an eleven/twelve year old individual. Y2 did that when he was four and while more likely to be age appropriate at that point, I didn't laugh! Made me wonder if she was one of those moms, one of those people who are sold out on the "boys will be boys" mentality? You know the type...they excuse irrational, illogical, inappropriate, irresponsible behavior by boys/men as nothing more than just a by product of the testosterone that courses through their bodies. There is some truth to that statement....boys/men are designed with an undeniable blue print. They are hardwired in such a way that certain behaviors and traits are all because of that Y chromosome. However, stupidity is not. Poor taste is not. Lack of self control is not. Poor judgement is not. At some point, we have to hold our boys accountable for their actions and the sooner the better, if you REALLY want to know the truth. We have to stop laughing and dismissing it as uncontrollable. Maintaining the idea that boys/men are subject to their uncontrollable urges lowers them to the level of our four legged friends. And that's just not right.
Sometimes being a people watcher comes back around to bite you in the rear...my only comfort is that my rear will be properly covered...less likely to leave marks!
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