Bringing up boys: They never grow up!

There’s this thing right where they say something to you and your heart just goes to your mouth and all you want to do is protect them from the hard knocks of growing up. You’ve forgotten how hurtful it is, all those disappointments which in themselves are nothing much to a grown up but to a little boy, well they must be soul destroying.

We were in the car going to a friends house, a friend with three fantatstic boys who in the past have always been happy to indulge my two, but it’s been a while since we were there over a year and now well now these boys are very grown up.

The Boy: Mum how old is E?

Me: Oooh I think he’s 11 now darling.

The Boy, wonderingly: T and H are older than that aren’t they?

Me not too comfortable where this one is going: Yes they are.

The Boy: H is two years older than E and T is older than H.?

This was suspiciously sounding like one of those math problems where the words made it more difficult than if the sum was actually written down.

Me, suspiciously: Yeeesss….

The Boy: So H is 13, he’s a teenager.

I was going to answer but I was in two minds if I should just say yes H was 13 or whether I should congratulate The Boy on his mental arithmetic when he carried on.

The Boy: Bog Boy, you know we shouldn’t expect the big boys to play with us you know. We aren’t very big.

Bog Boy just gazed round eyed at his big brother and I just carried on driving eyes firmly fixed to the road ahead but mind spinning away.

I felt I should counteract this statement by saying of course H, T and E would play with them but then I couldn’t actually be sure that they would. I mean why should they? There is four years between my eldest and E and 10 years between T and Bog Boy. Huge gaps and of course Teenagers well, they are a different breed altogether…

We parked and tentatively opened the gate and walked up to the house. All of us waiting in trepidation fo rhte rebuff that would surely happen…

But you know apart for an initial awkwardness they were all soon playing Wii and then basketball and then as the evening wore on any protestation of sophistication was totally forgotten and they were all hurtling down hills in go carts, squabbling and fighting and just being – I do love boys, you know they never grow up!