Boys are good too!

 After school today…

Me: what’s new at school?

M: do you know what boy-a did today?

Me: no idea

M: he snapped his fingers at the teacher

Me: oh that wasn’t nice at all

M: no, but see that’s the thing with boys - they are not thinking

Me: uhuh

M: boy-a is not a bad guy but he just did it. Also did you know he has a crush on girl-a and everybody knows because he clearly needs help - but girl-a doesn’t know

Me: well that’s pointless he should just tell her - why this big drama

M: you don’t understand mom - he can’t just tell her - that’s a big step to take on your own.

Me: well it doesn’t matter either ways - I mean what’s a crush anyway / it’s like you like one person more than the others - what else!

M: yeah but eventually you might date then and end up marrying them - it all starts with a crush

Me: that’s nonsense - between crush and marriage lies an eternity - and nothing’s certain - people change, feelings change.

M: that’s true and anyways it’s does not seem very wise to marry the first crush you have ..

Me: truer words of wisdom have not been spoken

M: i don’t even know if I’ll ever end up marrying you know

Me: well time will tell..

M: yep but it seems difficult - I mean in my experience only one-third of the boys are really sensible you know. What do you think is the ratio?

Me: no that sounds about right..but let’s not get into this generic boy bashing - I mean talking of generalizations there might be some great things about boys.

M: ofcourse - the best thing about boys is that they are very simple - they don’t think much - they fight, they make up, they move on - it’s not like they say something and mean something else - it’s pretty straightforward - you know like baboons - I love that about boys

Whatever ounce of self control I had was lost with that comment - and I had to excuse myself to laugh in private because this was a very sincere conversation and I didn’t want her to feel I was condescending in any which way - It’s just that I don’t remember being so insightful in 3rd Grade!

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54Nithya Iyer, Aparna Bhaduri and 52 others