{"id":972,"date":"2012-10-06T07:31:30","date_gmt":"2012-10-06T11:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/?p=972"},"modified":"2012-10-06T07:31:30","modified_gmt":"2012-10-06T11:31:30","slug":"boys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/?p=972","title":{"rendered":"Boys."},"content":{"rendered":"

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On September 27, 2004 I found out I would be the mom to a boy.\u00c2\u00a0 I was, of course, excited about being a mom.\u00c2\u00a0 But in the midst of dancing school with 125 girls and growing up in a house of girls (plus Dad who had six sisters), I had no idea what to expect.\u00c2\u00a0 Would I have to learn super hero names? Would I get sucked into a world of Legos, trucks and cars?\u00c2\u00a0 Worse yet, would I be on a first name basis with the pediatric ER staff?<\/p>\n

What about dance classes? Dolls? The stuff I knew, loved and figured I would play with again?<\/p>\n

Of course these are all generalizations and gender stereotypes.\u00c2\u00a0 And after eight years I would never say that I am an expert.\u00c2\u00a0 But there is something I have learned.<\/p>\n

You don’t parent a gender.\u00c2\u00a0 You parent a child.\u00c2\u00a0 You learn about you child- their likes, dislikes and interests.\u00c2\u00a0 I learned a great deal in Montessori trainings about following each child and figuring out what makes them unique and special and fostering that.\u00c2\u00a0 I learned about preparing the environment and standing out of their way while they learned on their own.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure as a parent (much like the teacher), you are there for help, guidance and questions.\u00c2\u00a0 But overall, you observe and use your observations to guide.<\/p>\n

Aidan loves science and math.\u00c2\u00a0 He would be happy doing science experiments all day.\u00c2\u00a0 He also loves geography and history.\u00c2\u00a0 He is very much interested in Abe Lincoln, the Revolutionary War and countries.\u00c2\u00a0 He is not really interested in war toys, super heroes or cars.<\/p>\n

Brendan loves dolls, dresses and imaginary play.\u00c2\u00a0 He will sit and play Legos with Aidan but would rather play with princesses.<\/p>\n

Now that the kids are in school and have friends and are learning more about the world around them, I am sure their interests with change and other things will be included.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s fine.\u00c2\u00a0 They will figure that out on their own.\u00c2\u00a0 And we will figure out, as we have for almost 8 years, what that means for how we parents each of them.<\/p>\n

But what I do know is I love being the mom of Aidan and Brendan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On September 27, 2004 I found out I would be the mom to a boy.\u00c2\u00a0 I was, of course, excited about being a mom.\u00c2\u00a0 But in the midst of dancing school with 125 girls and growing up in a house … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=972"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":975,"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972\/revisions\/975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}