Boys vs. Girls

Bella, being "interested!"

I've observed the differences between boys and girls over the years, but it has only been since we've had Bella that I've seen firsthand how different girls can be from boys.  Bella is nosy like me, although I prefer to be called "interested."  She's in our face all the time wanting to know what's going on, while Charlie hangs back and does his own thing.  Bella is constantly under foot wanting attention and being needy, and whenever I sit down she is immediately in my lap.

Since my boys started dating girls I've experienced a little bit of what it's like to have a two-legged girl around.  It's actually very nice, and very different for a mom of boys.  Girls are actually interested in details, details like:  "Where are we eating tonight?"  "What should I wear?"  "When are we leaving?"  "When will we be back?"  "Who will be there?"  "What did you say?"  "What did they say?"  "Who is that?"  My boys have no interest in the Who, What, When, Where, or Why.

This past Saturday I observed an incident that was not funny at all.  In fact, it was quite disturbing.  I was stopped at a red light at a very busy intersection at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.  Broad daylight.  A young girl was operating the car in front of me and in the back of the car was a boy with a girl straddling him, so she was facing me.  I'm not kidding!  It took a few seconds for what I was seeing to register, and when it did I instinctively tried to honk the horn.  Like always, when I try to honk the horn I didn't hit the right the spot, so no noise.  Connor was in the car with me and told me to stop trying to honk the horn.  I then tried to take a photo of the car's license tag, not sure for what purpose, and Connor also told me to stop and to mind my own business.

I should really insert a video demonstrating my reaction here, but I'll try to describe.  I made eye contact with the young girl and yelled,

"Your nasty."  
"That's dirty."  
"I'm telling your mother."  

I also jabbed my finger wildly at the girl while I screamed,

"Your nasty."  
"That's dirty."  
"I'm telling your mother."  

I repeated that mantra until the light changed and the car sped away.

I was shocked by what I had seen and did not understand why Connor was not as outraged as me.  He indicated that he agreed it was ridiculous and inappropriate, but it wasn't his business and didn't understand why I was making it my business.  To which I responded, "I'm an adult, I am a mother, and that behavior is so over the line it needs to be stopped."  "Responded" is not the correct term; I would say "Screamed at the top of my lungs" would have been more like it.  In fact, I actually had a headache for three hours and a sore throat from all of my screaming.

The next day I went to my niece's baby shower and I described to my sisters-in-law and nieces what I had seen the day before.  They had the same reaction as I did and my one niece went on to say what she and her mom would have done in the same situation, "We would have taken a photo of the license tag and videotaped what was going on.  Then we would have followed the car and tracked down that girl's mother!"  

Damn it!  I should have followed the car.  I didn't even think of that because I was so busy defending my reactions.  I definitely could have used an "interested" girl as my co-pilot that day.