Boy Humor

I recently read an article in Brain, Child written by a mom of boys discussing the natural tendencies for boys to be somewhat violent. Her story was all about watching her boys wrestle with their father and later with one another and how they learned to show mercy and restraint over time. Those of us with boys have seen this and probably struggle similarly to the author of the article.

Last night Aidan was in the tub playing with his pirate boats and, like always, starts making up stories. He goes through variations, most of which end with someone drowning, someone getting eaten by the shark, and sometimes one person will survive. Usually no one survives.

So I say to him, "Aidan, why does everyone always die?" He says, "They don't always die, this guy survived that time." And he points at his boat captain. So I suggest, "Well, why can't they just live happily ever after once in a while?" He sits for a moment and then tells another story.

"Once upon a time the shark attacked the boat, ate all the people, got very fat and died." He looks at me and says, "Since you don't like it when people die, I thought I would make it funny. Isn't that funny, Mommy? The shark gets so fat that he dies!"