As a woman, and a mother of boys I can’t begin to count how many times I have heard that little gem, but in watching my boys play video games the other day I realize, some things are JUST guy things.
I remember when A, who is now 8, was about five years old. He had a fever and was coughing, so I decided to keep him home from school. As all kids do he started to get restless, then bored…so I thought why not play a game with him. He picked something called Serious Sam, or Serious George something like that. Anyways, I was not really clear on the objective of the game and though I would just ask as we went along. Well, I quickly found out that my hand to eye coordination is, to put it bluntly, pathetic. Somehow I ended up upside down and could not right myself. I tried and tried, meanwhile my five year old is laughing hysterically at me. Instead of trying to help, he ran over to me and stepped on me (the video game me that is)! That was just the best in his book. I chalked it up to him having played the game before, and sat with him while he played for a bit more, but then this weekend I was watching my three year old play a game with his older brother. Now, I could just be completely horrible at games, but H seemed to just know how to play. He was no match for his older brother, but he seemed to understand the basics, which is more than I can say for me!
If you know anything about video games, hell if you watch TV at all, you know Halo 3 came out last week. Having four boys and a husband that is completely into that stuff (not to mention a coupon for Target) I went out to get it for my crew. Now, I don’t remember the last time my husband played a game like this, I would say AT LEAST a year, and in five minutes he had the basics down and was given our 11 year old a run for his money. Leaving me to conclude…video games…they’re a guy thing.
Same thing with the grill! I like to think I am pretty savvy in the kitchen. I like to experiment with new recipes, and I would say for the most part they are pretty good, and then every once in awhile I will surprise myself and come up with something downright awesome! (hey, if my 11, 8 and 3 year old take more than two bites of it, it goes in the awesome category for us!) But grilling….not a clue. Don’t get me wrong…if the thing is on I can turn the meat, baste it, and tell when it needs to come off the grill, but turning the thing on….might as well be playing a video game. Now, I never thought it was a big deal…after all, it is a big, rather fancy grill, my husband has had time to figure it out, the little quirks and quibbles, but one day I was just really wanting burgers. My husband was out of town I think, or maybe just not home from work yet, and I was complaining about wanting to grill the burgers. My oldest son went outside, looked at the thing for a few minutes and next thing I know I am slapping burgers on the grill. Obviously grills are a guy thing too.
I could go on….cars, AC units, simple home projects, etc…but I think you get the point, there IS such a thing as guy things…and you know what? I don’t mind. I can guess that my husband has easily saved us 20k over the years by doing some of the home repairs himself ( I would actually venture that the figure is higher than that). And looking at his big hands, and knowing how capable they are…makes me feel safe. A cliche’ I know, but for the most part I am a very capable woman, probably to the point where it bugs my husband at times, but every so often…I WANT to be the helpless female, I want to be clucked over and with five…soon to be six…guys in the house, isn’t that my right?
