Today the "old man" called from work and announced he was taking the rest of the day off and we were heading off to civilization. (Nearest town with some actual stores.) It was the day to buy DS's hermit crabs. That's another post for another day.
We hit Office Max, then I dropped the old man off at Barnes and Noble while Thomas and I hit Hobby Lobby. Trust me, that's a good thing because when the old man isn't around at Hobby Lobby, I have more fun.
We spent an hour at HL and then went back to B&N. We were starving and waiting for old man to finish up and I walked around the bookstore. I came to a table where there were calendars, planners, assignment books, etc., for back to school. There was a mom with two boys, the older appeared to be about Thomas's age.
I watched him grab the perfect planner. "Mom, mom, this is the one I want!" He was so excited. The mom took one look at it and sighed. "Honey," she said, "This kitten is really cute, but I worry the kids at school will tease you over it. Then you won't use it. Then we'll have wasted money yet again. Pick out a different one."
This made me SO sad. Why can't a young man pick a planner out with a cute kitten on the cover? Are boys exempt from enjoying the little critters? Truth be told, I actually completely understood what the mom was saying. She was trying to prevent hurt feelings because she knew the little imps at public school would shred him to pieces over his "girlish" planner.
I was thinking I should go tell her about the joys of homeschooling. Nah, she didn't look the type. I also thought about going up and saying how sad the whole situation was, that he should get the kitten planner if he wanted. I didn't think she'd appreciate that.
Thomas saw the whole thing, too. When we walked out of listening distance he said, "I'm so glad we homeschool, mom, and that you let me buy the cute planner with the puppy and kitten on it."
Yes, boys can like kittens. They can have kitten planners. Thomas won't be teased for his choice. I love the freedom from "socialization" we have homeschooling.
2 comments:
Great post! Even though my ds is only 5, I could see him choosing notebooks, etc... w/ cute pets in the future. It is sad that so many boys are taught to hide their true feelings of compassion, kindness, & delight in beautiful things.
I, too, love the this kind of freedom we have. My son wanted an umbrella with ladybugs on it. It was definitely a girl's umbrella, but he liked it and I said ok. If he went to school, I would have had to say no. He gets called a girl anyway because of his long hair, but thankfully he's confident enough not to care, but I think being teased (and possibly bullied) day in and day out at school would be too much.
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