Tuesday 12 March 2013

FUTURE MEN


I love Mondays. Yes I know most do not, but Justin has Mondays off, so we always spend the day doing something together. We try to make it our day, now we have Jarvis, it has become our ‘family day’.

As with every Monday, Jarvis has his swimming lesson in the morning then we do something. 


This week we went into GOMA, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, at South Bank. I love it there, so much so I use to work at the gallery. Lucky for me Jarvis also loves it there; this is because the gallery always has spaces dedicated to children. The whole bottom level is just for kids, The Children's Art Centre; it has interactive projects, activities and publications for children and families.

However, at the moment Jarvis’s favorite space in the gallery is up on the third floor, Paramodel joint factory 2012’. Jarvis will spend ages re-arranging the train pieces. Also he loves to flirt with a young red hair girl who works there.  


The other exhibition Jarvis likes is the Richard Maloy, Yellow or blue? 2012. Justin and I made Jarvis a costume out of the cardboard, however, Jarvis was not impressed with it.



After a couple of hours at GOMA, we wandered across the bridge into the city, stopping off at the Shingle Inn to have a hot chocolate. Who knew that hot chocolates came with instructions? Jarvis liked the booth, and that he got to colour in while we drank our drinks.


Over all a lovely day together being tourist in our own city. The only blimp on the radar was on the walk back over the bridge a man purposely slammed into me. (There was heaps of space, so I assume he did this on purpose). At the same time grabbing my breast. (Buddy after breastfeeding and at my age there is not much to grab). At first I was upset, then I thought why let this arrogant aggressive male get to me, But then I also thought, “What would his mother think?”

All of this left me thinking… I am raising a boy, a future man. How do we know when we are ‘getting it right’? Or how do we stuff up, some mothers must have raised this type of male. So mothers of boys out there, how do we raise our boys to be the men we want them to be?

8 comments:

  1. I love GOMA, not that I've been for years!

    I think you'll know if you're getting it right. (I'm sure you are) They learn from the way their fathers treat their mothers mostly. My son went through a phase of morphing in to that kind of arrogant aggressive male but now that he has good male role models in his life all of that is gone.

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    1. You should go, there is so much for the little kids to enjoy.
      I know it helps to have a go older male role model, but I also worry about outside influences. Such as peers from school and so on. I worry about Jarvis, I guess with Tamika it was easier I understood the pressure points of being a girl. But with a boy I am clueless

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  2. So cute! I wanted to do baby swimming with Nereus but we didn't have the money :(

    I agree with Lila. These kind of people have obviously didn't grow in healthy families.

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    1. But surely it is not just the Mums to blame when kids go off the rails? I am not disputing, that growing up in a loving family is the best thing for kids. But I do worry about, other 'stuff'.

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  3. I've been thinking a lot about this lately as well. It's such an amazing thing, being laden with the responsibility of guiding another human's perceptions. I hope to be a mother who can raise a compassionate, thoughful, respectful and open minded son as well. I think when our actions, our values, our daily behaviours reflect what we hope for them, and like Lila and krysta said, so much has to do with the men we invite into ours and our children's lives. x

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    1. Raising a daughter was some how different, I wanted Tamika to be strong, independent, secure and thought of others. My father is a perfect example of good male behaviour, okay so a little sexiest at times (apparently as a girl I should not wield the chainsaw, but I should know how to change a tyre) but he was a good role model for me to grow up around, but then I was surprised that all men are not as loving and well mannered as him.
      Now raising Jarvis, a little male child, with Justin at my side there is a lot of variance in thought, culturally and because of our age difference. But the one thing we do have in common is our love for Jarvis. Which I hope is enough to help us muddle through.

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    2. I like to think that it's in this difference between ourselves and our partners that our boys will grow up having learnt that love and respect and strength manifests itself in many different ways, and that will give them a confidence to find their own. I'm sure that our own awareness of all this, and our abounding love for them will be enough.

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    3. I hope you are right. My biggest stress (besides money) is always about my babies and if they will grow up okay. I figure I can never afford to give them financial things, but I can give them both an unlimited supply of love.

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