I just had to have my boy

As you may know, I prayed and prayed to God before I even got pregnant that if He saw fit, that He would allow me the joy of raising a son. I grew up with one sister who was a bit tomboyish, but she played house with me and even Barbies, so we were a pretty good match. My cousins helped me be a little rough and tumble, but living with a brother day in and day out is clearly a very different experience - just ask Jay!

So I got that boy of mine and since very early on he has been ALL boy. He climbed on top of our dining room table before he was even two years old, he threw the bulbs off the Christmas tree and said "Ball" before his second Christmas, and now he pees everywhere BUT in the toilet on an all-too-regular basis. Yep, I got my boy. At age two, Nas stopped dead in his tracks to take full notice of a huge Victoria's Secret model on a poster in nothing but her 'secrets'. All boy.

Well now that Nas is an active 7-year-old first grader who loves sports, I'm finding it hard to accept that he isn't a fan of school work or much of anything that requires him to sit for too long. Not that the kid is doing badly in school, but this is the kid who does high-fives to the whole fam when he sees an 87% on his tests! Jay has me programmed to think like a 'perfectionist's mother' so this from Nas tends to baffle me - til I get over myself!

Case in point: Yesterday, I wanted him to complete all of his homework because he had basketball practice at 6:30. Nas got the tears flowing and the grumbling started! Really??! One pretty easy math worksheet, a writing prompt, and reading for a few minutes before he could run freely? Wow. I was TICKED!!

"You'll skip basketball if you're going to stress me out this much about some homework!!" I told him.

Of course Nas didn't respond, that's his sister's bag. He's wise enough to let me rant so he just kept doing his homework with tears in his eyes. Nas made a couple of mistakes on the math sheet and needed to edit and rewrite a few words on his writing prompt. This I hated. The kid is doing his work so to send him back to fix anything made me feel bad, but really? We're doing it right or we're not doing it!

Needless to say my son got his homework done this ran off to play before basketball practice. Let me tell you there were NO tears or grumbling when it was time to leave for basketball. I get it, no one likes homework, but in the FIRST grade!?! It's non-negotiable for many years to come so I made sure (and his Daddy did too!) that Nas knows school comes first. Period. His first priority is to do well in school, everything - and I mean everything - else is secondary to the time he needs to invest in his education. If we as his parents don't teach him NOW he'll never get it or appreciate it. This child-rearing gig is hard work, but who's gonna raise them if Babe and I don't!?