I think my son is also the nicest person I know! I am so glad to have him for a kid! I stayed with him and his wife once in their guest room and he was so sweet to him's momma. I stayed out until 8 one evening because I wanted him and his wife to have time to themselves after work. He called me and said "MOM, it is 8 o clock at night, WHERE ARE YOU???"

Now, isn't that a wonderful son??

What a wonderful man.

He loves his momma. Mom must have done something right!! Good job mom.

Thankee!

Man .. I wish I could say good things about my parents. Your kids are so so lucky! All my parents are good at is lovebusting and doing things reluctantly or with hidden expectations of reciprocation or tit for tat.

Nice pic ML!

edit: to have Some MB parents would be amazing ...

I have 2 sons. My "oldest" is 2.5 years old. I can't lie - it sure is nice being in the stage where everything you do as a mother is perfect and they can't tell you otherwise yet

HAHA alis .. good point! My son is 8 .. and he is one of the most respectful kids I know (his martial arts DEF helps with that). My daughter has a fantastic head on her shoulders .. and is an all A's student and also fantastic at her martial arts as well. Anything less than an A is a failure to her. My son doesnt have letter grades yet .. but he is all G's

I may post a video of their nunchuck skills in the near future of them doing their nunchuck patterns.

I am a male nurse. Does that make me a "girly-man?"

No.

It makes me a science nerd that found an outlet. It makes me someone who likes stories, and I get to hear the greatest human stories every day. It means I am capable of showing care and compassion, which I believe IS manly. I don't know where I'm going with this... O_o

And I am a bad [censored], does that make me a manly-gurl??

Naaah...that makes you Mel!

I bought a doll for my oldest son when he was...oh, I don't know, maybe four? She was way cool - you could feed her cherries from a spoon, and HOT DANG! those cherries magically disappeared when you stuck the spoon to her mouth! I was impressed. AND the milk magically disappeared from the bottle when you held it to her mouth.

I found the baby shoved underneath our basement staircase, filthy, missing her clothes, totally uncared for and forgotten, while the boys were setting up sorties with their GI Joes and accounting for every army man they owned.

Lesson learned. Although I still get a kick out of those cherries disappearing from that baby's spoon...

LOL! Speaking of GI Joes, did you know they made great Barbie boyfriends??

Oh, yeah - I had two brothers. My Barbies were never without a date Ken wouldn't have made it at our house. He was too....not GI Joe.

I personally think he was gay and was using Barbie as a beard, but I'm too polite to say that here...or not

**snort**

I never had much success getting any of my daughters into Hot Wheels... I thought chicks dug cars?

Only when a cute GIJoe is driving..

My 4-year-old daughter loves cars. She has a whole tub of Hot Wheels. Her favorites are her five Monster Trucks.

She also loves her wooden train set.

At her preschool, they have a pretend kitchen and a dollhouse and every time I've been there, just as many boys were playing with them as girls. And the girls were playing with the cars, trucks and blocks.

My older kids (3 boys and 1 girl) all played with each other's toys too, both "boy" and "girl" toys.

I also worked at a parent co-op preschool for five years, and at the preschool age at least, I really never noticed a difference between the toys boys preferred compared to the ones girls preferred. We generally had a mixture of genders playing with all of the toys - everything from dolls to blocks to riding bikes and playing in the sandbox and doing art.

I suppose my personal experiences may be the exception to the rule, but I have had a lot of experience with young children from a variety of backgrounds. I'm not sure when this preference for "boy" vs. "girl" things begins, but from what I've seen, it doesn't seem to be universally true for preschool children under the age of five.

There is some great feed back in here ... I guess it comes down to the intentions of the "mother".

My son actually asked me if I could get him a Barbie this year. Its one he remembers seeing a commercial for last year. The barbie that comes with a dog that you feed and it poops it back out. (rinse repeat! ewww!) .. and a little pooper scooper to shovel it up with. He laughed so hard when that commercial came on and was grossed out (kinda) when the commercial fed it back to the dog again to poop out.

Who comes up with this stuff?? lol ... I am still waiting for divorced barbie. Comes with all of Kens stuff. LMAO!

MNG

Census info on single parents:

http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/BL-REB-21678

Why is all the blame being laid at the feet of single mothers? This article completely ignores the role of fathers who abandon their children, and the fathers who are content to be Disneyland Dads and see their kids only 4 days per month. The blindness of the writer boggles my mind.

If men would step up and act like the great husbands they are meant to be, the divorce rate would plummet, children would never be born outside of marriage, and we'd go a long way toward solving our social ills. Has everyone forgotten that it takes two people to make a baby?

Dr. Harley himself says that he is harder on men in counseling, that they usually have more work to do to become a great partner. He says women are emotional "responders" so when the man does a good job meeting her needs, she will give him all the love and care he's ever dreamed of. Why then are we applauding all this blame of women and mothers?

If men are truly victims of 'selfish single mothers,' then why do men commit the vast majority of murders, rapes and assaults - and always have - even in societies where everyone stays married and children are raised by two parents?

I don't see girls growing up in single-parent homes causing the same violent social problems.

Laugh if you will about throwing a doll across a room - say that he's a "real man," for throwing it. But I think empathy is an admirable quality, for both male and female.

In fact, I would have liked to see a little more empathy and thoughtful discussion on this thread. (shrug) I guess some of the men on here aren't really Marriage Builders after all...I can't imagine Dr. Harley or Steve Harley villifying women this way. The Harleys exemplify respect for both genders, not this tripe.

Well I agree also the dad plays a huge part. I vowed to never be the dead beat dad that my dad was and to do everthing it took to make sure that my wife and I as parents would succeed at whatever the cost to make it happen. But I lived the article as a result of the choices of both my parents.

Just this year I went NC with most of my family. My dad got a mouthful from me before that happened.

There's a lot of pain here.....and a lot I can relate to.

MNG

Be a little more specific on "all the blame." This article particularly lays out 10 different items.




Chicken, and egg. The article is explaining how single mothers raise broken men, who take a hand in creating more single mothers.


O... k....


Why are most of the police force, fire department, correctional institutions, and standing military men?

Is it because there is a difference between sexes? OMG, men and women.... are... different?

Could the very same genes and behaviors that allow a man to defend his home and family with violence.... also make him more prone to the behaviors you mentioned?


Until they are single mothers of sons.


Didn't play with barbies. Do quite well as a nurse in 3 separate settings. I have NO idea what you are reaching for here.

Replying to a discussion after SKIMMING the thread 1 year later.... when there were several threads going on discussing men's issues... you are missing quite a bit of context to found such complaints.