I'm new to raising boys, relatively speaking. Our first 3 children were girls, then the boys started coming. Currently, at home, the boys outnumber the girls for the first time ever. My oldest son is now 14. He's our first male teen. And no matter how politically correct it is to say so, boys are very different from girls. They act differently. They laugh at different things. They relate differently. They show love differently.
My 14 year old son has started randomly telling me "I love you like a moose loves a cow." That has led to interesting discussions of whether moose love cows or not. He tried to (jokingly) defend a moose-cow hybrid. We searched the internet for such a thing and failed. As expected. Now moose-cow hybrids have become a family joke, popping up randomly in conversations, usually when I least expect it.
A few days ago, he said it again, and I responded with "I love you like a lemming loves the sea." That totally confused him, so we got to look up lemmings and the myth that they will run off a cliff into the sea to die when migrating. But mostly, I was just glad I got to confuse him with a similarly nonsensical statement of endearment.
I think it's just a way to tell his Mom that he loves her without sacrificing his macho manhood as he's growing up. That's okay. I'll continue to find ways to play along and keep it light-hearted. I don't want to embarrass him, after all. Well, most of the time I don't want to embarrass him.
April E.
