I think maybe that's why we swaddle them in pink, and saturate their lives with softness. We're trying to take the edge off these power ninjas we've given birth to.
My own parents got me a kitten. I was too rough, I played rough and hard and I needed something soft and gentle to love, and so Morris came to live with us. He was my love and best friend for 18 years. And yes, despite the fact that I put doll dresses on him and also used to carry him around inside my Fisher Price Schoolhouse, he definitely had a softening impact on my person.
I was thinking of this truth today at soccer practice, watching Julia do her own thing, disregard the rules and generally display a general disinterest in anything BUT her own will and wants. As I watched her, from behind the plexi, she proceeded to do a kick line while the rest of the children sat down.
She didn't stop when they said stop, she used her hands.
But I was reminded of just how tough little girls are, when they were playing sharks and minnows. Minnows are kicking their ball down the field. Sharks are trying to kick their ball away. Julia was carrying her ball, no reason to chance losing it to a shark, I suppose.
A little boy ran up and tackled her, knocking her ball out of her hands. As she rolled free of his tack, she kicked him directly in the face.
Hard.
And ran away and grabbed her ball, continuing to run up and down the field carrying her ball. The little boy went to the sideline to cry.I can't really blame him, he got kicked in the face. He also tackled a girl a lot smaller than him, so he might've earned that one.
Another girl got tackled by another boy. She kicked him in the nuts.
Girls 2
Boys 0
It must be in their genes.
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