Are boys different to raise than girls!? Joelle explains that there is primarily one major difference...

Our family consists of my three men and me as the only woman

The men are in the majority with us. Quite nice actually, I love being a boy's mom. I find girls so sweet and delicate and would worry all day whether my daughter would get hurt. Especially later with going out! I wouldn't be able to close my eyes at all. With my two little guys, I don't really worry about that. I teach them to always be there for each other. To always support each other and stand up for one another. But what I've come to realize after a few years of intensive living with my men is that they like different things than women. And now I hear you thinking: "Yes duh, that's obvious, right?" Absolutely true! But I never really thought about it until I suddenly had a male household myself! And since I'm in the minority, some adjustment on my part was indeed necessary.

The differences between men and women appear to be present from an early age

Men have an early affinity for fighting. With or without weapons, they don't seem to care much. By now, I can fortunately gauge quite well what can be used as a weapon, so I'm able to limit the damage considerably. However, the roughhousing always ends in tears, and we've even had to visit the emergency room after a particularly rough play fight between the kids and dad. With a sympathetic nod from the female doctor, I immediately felt understood and not so alone in my bewilderment towards my three men.

Another thing men are good at is breaking things

Of course, I don't have any daughters, so I don't know what it's like with them, but as soon as we go on a family visit, my little boys already start discussing in the car how they can torture their cousin's doll. I think the CIA might want to offer them a job later on. Fortunately, my sister-in-law can laugh about it. We've drawn the line at poking out eyes or pulling off arms and legs, and after they've had their fun, they have to put the doll back neatly in the doll carriage. Of course, I do teach them that we shouldn't break other people's things and that what they're doing is actually very naughty. I also hope that other mothers of boys recognize this, because otherwise, I might have to start worrying seriously.

And although I can get used to anything and am willing to adapt to most things

There's something I can't, but especially don't want to get used to. In our male household, it's mainly about one thing: Penises. Yes, Penises with a capital P. No matter how small the kids are, the male brain seems to be obsessed with it. Do I think so? No, I'm quite sure of it! They pull it out of their pants whenever they feel like it, and every day they compare theirs with each other. What's with men always wanting to have the biggest one? It should be the other way around, that we women... I can't even finish that sentence...

When we taught the boys that they pee from a penis

it was understood that they were peeing from Pino. Of course, you understand that I can no longer let the children watch Sesame Street when other people were around. Poor Pino is literally screwed. Secretly, I find this very funny and I actually deliberately make too little effort to unlearn them. What the children also find interesting, but especially very funny, is that I do NOT have a penis. After we got married, I took my husband's name so that we were all the same, and now I don't fit in again! 'Haha, mom has a bi-hiips!' *Sigh*. On vacation, even a clear separation is made between the penis room and the buttocks room. What I also find difficult as a woman are all the penis-related phases. It is pulled on, it is tucked away, stuffed somewhere, dances are made with it, and it is played with like a helicopter. Currently, the boys are in the phase where they are experimenting with peeing. The most extraordinary positions are assumed, and they try to 'aim' in the most unusual places. WHY?! I have thought about how to deal with this for a long time, but I think I just have to accept that men have penises and are un-believ-ably proud of them. My task as a mother, I think, is to teach them that not everyone needs to see their penis. Actually, it's beautiful that they are so unashamed of it. We women could certainly learn something from that, right?

JOELLE