"Everyone should grow up and have a boy!"

Tonight my son announced to me that everyone should grow up and have a boy. I'm not sure where this came from, but I was working on another piece of writing about family planning just hours earlier. However he arrived at this idea, it is an interesting premise. In fact, it may have been two separate premises.

Premise 1: Everyone should grow up. We could debate this - whether or not everyone should grow up - but the fact remains that everyone will grow up, at least in the 'get taller and older' sense. If my son meant that everyone should become a mature, responsible and contributing member of society, well then... frankly I'm worried that he worries too much for a three-year-old.

Premise 2: Everyone should have a boy. This premise contains an underlying assumption that everyone should have a child. This is a large can of worms that, just for today, I'm not going to open (stay tuned). Okay. It can be argued that everyone should have a boy. Having a boy certainly offers the potential for personal growth. Moms get to explore a world of trucks and bugs and roughhousing, and we also get to learn patience - a degree of patience that many of us had not thought humanly possible. Dads get to relive their childhood days playing with trucks and bugs, and they get to wrestle with someone below their weight class - a great confidence booster.

So far we've really only proven that everyone will probably grow up and that a person might benefit from having a boy, but what about my son's argument that everyone should have a boy? Well, if no one ever had a boy then no one would ever have a boy... if you catch my meaning. Maybe my son was concerned about the fate of the human race. It's difficult to say what goes on in the mind of a preschooler. All that I can say is that I'm glad I had a boy. He's probably going to grow up to be big and strong and will reach things down for me from high shelves once his dad finally gets tired of the job.

Maybe all my son really meant is that everyone should have a boy in their life, and with that I wholeheartedly agree. Here's to boys!  They're strong and have great imaginations, and they never tire of trying to entertain us by sticking things up their noses (a girl would never do that).

NOTE: My son has not put anything up his nose... yet. It's probably just a matter of time. He is a boy after all.