Boys

The boys are watching cartoons this am, some batman thing, L asks who the female was in the show, Erik ~ the all knowing comic guy tells L who it is (so super important I can't even remember) and follows it up with a ghoulish reply, "Watch out for Women, boy, they will suck out your soul!" (Maaahaha!) My little baby boy says tentatively, "Like.....my.....mommy?"

Last weekend a bunch of us were up at the lake gathered in somewhat of a family reunion. Now, just a little bit about Duluth for those of you who don't know....or at least the part we are subject to. If you think about Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox,  take Paul, with red plaid flannel shirt on, shorten him by about half (but the same weight), change the ax to a fishing pole and add the ever-so-delightful Tim Allen "Ahr, ahr ahr" and that pretty much sums up the men of Duluth. They have fancy man-caves, they go out on boats for hours together, they bring each other beers, they gossip about neighbors and throw sticks into the water for their dogs to retrieve. They change shoes and hats depending on the weather, talk sports and secretly (yeah right) smoke cigars and think they are super sneeky. Then to top it all off they make jokes about "Man tests" and "woman's work" -- now, if you look at this paragraph again, I coulda been talking about a bunch of "chicks", as they say.

The women however are sturdy, hardworking, take no BS kinda women. They know the men are joking, roll their eyes and make sure all that needs to get done, gets done. The men might make it for a week (Duluth women at this point again rolling their eyes would say, yeah, more like a day, an hour, 5 minutes they'd say) or so without his partner but after that.....completely helpless.  (I guess that is most men...) Anyway.

So back to the story, the gaggle of men go to play golf one day. Logan is the lone male, left with 3 adult women, and two pre-teen girls.....we were going to take the "kids" fishing off the pontoon. Logan asks me, "Does this mean I get to drive the boat?" (he is 6 mind you) "What do you mean buddy?" I say. He says, "Well all the other men left, does that mean I get to drive the boat since there are only girls left?" As I vow to never let my little boy get initiated into the man-club, I choke out...."You don't think the women can handle it?" He knows he's stepped in it by now and starts backing away from me, he gets that ornery glint in his eye (exactly like his mother's) and says with a grin....."Uhmmm, no???"

Rotten boy.

So the real life solution, mama's don't let your baby's grow up to be cowboys or Duluth "men".