Nick loves to get messy. He loves to jump in a creek & catch minnows, or go froggin’. He likes to climb trees & everything else he can get his feet up onto. He collects bugs & Pokemon cards. He loves a campfire, where we’ll often catch him burning leaves on a stick. He likes to run in the rain & wrestle the dog. He likes playing soccer. He IS a boy’s boy. But he’s also smart and sensitive & has a great sense of humor. Some people think that boys are being emasculated today. I’m not sure if that’s true, but I found this article in Time magazine that’s reassuring to me. It also made me feel good about the lack of scedule that I provide my kids – giving way to them “just playing & being kids”.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1647452-1,00.html

Here’s a quote:

“Whether it’s urban kids who can’t go outside because it’s too dangerous or the overscheduled, overparented kids at the other end of the spectrum–I’m worried that boys have lost the chance to play and to explore,” Anderson told me. Our society takes a dim view of idle time and casts a skeptical eye on free play–play driven by a boy’s curiosity rather than the league schedule or the folks at Nintendo. But listen to Anderson as she lists the virtues of letting boys run themselves occasionally.

“When no one’s looming over them, they begin making choices of their own,” she says. “They discover consequences and learn to take responsibility for themselves and their emotions. They start learning self-discipline, self-confidence, team building. If we don’t let kids work through their own problems, we get a generation of whiners.”