Single Parent Gender Issues
Last night I had an interesting thing happen. While at my oldest son's baseball game, I overheard a parent (male) asked another parent (female) where my son's dad was. The female parent pointed to me and said, "There's his mom."
Oh.
He was simply looking for parents to tell them about a collection they were taking up for the coach for the end of the year. It wasn't a big deal, but still it bothered me.
Why do people assume that in order for a boy to play sports, his dad has to be around? Granted, his dad did play a lot of sports, and he would watch them if he lived closer, but it's just not feasible.
I did some research of my own then. Of the ten boys on the team, only four have parents still married. The other six have parents who are divorced/single, with the mothers being the ones who usually sit through practice and watch the games. Some dads taxi and attend games, but the mothers certainly aren't a minority. So why did it still bother me?
I have two boys and I play different sports with them all the time. I try really hard to keep the "masculine" activities in their daily lives. We wrestle, we burp, we play Star Wars and have water gun fights. But does it really matter?
It bothered me because I seemed to be dismissed. His dad wasn't there - oh, so how is he playing ball? Like I can't cop an attitude and get dirty with the boys.
It doesn't really matter since I won't let it. Mothers can take care of boys and keep them masculine, just as fathers can take care of girls and keep them feminine.
