Day 11

The term "Boys will be boys" is one that all of us have heard. It's used from the time they are toddlers and want nothing to do with any toy that doesn't have wheels on it, through middle school when fights and detentions become a reality, to young adulthood where boys tend to get speeding tickets, leave their clothes on the floor, and break girls' hearts. We even still use the phrase well past the point when they are "boys"- when the grown men in our lives buy over-sized trucks, power tools, have strippers at bachelor parties, and continue to leave their damn clothes on the floor...

But why do we not say, "Girls will be girls" quite nearly as often? Maybe because although the image of what boys do and say has not changed significantly over the years, I think that the world has changed immensly for girls, and the girls have changed with it.

Look at sports, and music, and fashion over the  years. Although things have changed for males in this area, the pace of change for women has been extraordinary. Choices for sports for girls used to consist of cheerleading and....well, cheerleading. Which, I'm sorry, was not a sport back then. Now cheerleading today takes amazing strentgh, coordination, discipline, and endurance- definately sport-worthy! And girls can literally play almost any sport out there that boys can- every year you hear about more girls infiltrating football, hockey, etc., and there are thousands of regular teams and programs in the traditional sports of basketball, softball, volleyball, etc that are female-only. Girls have so many choices and role models now compared to many years ago. They can choose from Pink to Beyonce to Faith Hill and can wear Polo or Betsy Johnson clothing. They can look up to female politicians, not just the First Lady or business women instead of "trophy wives".

My 10-year old son had his first basketball game today. There was a game running before ours, so we waited in the hallway for it to finish. What you can't see so clearly in today's picture was that the game before ours was a girls' game. And they were good. Good enough to have 4 boys stop talking to each other and start watching- they'd lean towards one another every once in a while and say something like, "Geez she must be 5'7"- did you see that rebound?".

So today's picture made me smile for two reasons:

1. Boys will be boys, and that's ok. At 10-11 years old, it is a little fun to watch them start to make the transition with girls from "cooties" to "cuties". I think this picture captures that well- they didn't complain about having to stand there and watch a bunch of cute, athletic girls run around.

2. Girls can be anything they want to be. I love to see young ladies out there playing hard, sweating, working together, and even being aggressive. This will help them so much in so many ways as they grow up. I am so glad that my children, both girl and boys, have grown up in a time where girls have these opportunities.