Raising Sons — A Memorable Celebration In My Life
I had to find creative ways to implant knowledge and wisdom that would etch itself to their brain and instincts happily.
A Memorable Celebration In Your Life
Dancing Elephants Press Prompt 49/52
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I don’t know what’s wrong with these men and sons, but boy do they get on our darn nerves. They have no idea the pain and agony we put our bodies, minds, and souls through to make them happy. Then some of them end up can’t get along with their sons because they want to control, forgetting how rebellious they were in their youth. Unaware that these boys intend to imitate their father’s actions, choices, and decisions, whether good or bad.
A smart mother like you and I, just want our kings to be responsively happy doing something productive and positive that they love and have a level of control over their lives and decisions.
Anyway, for me, it’s worth the visit to pain hell.
My husband has a good heart. A smart girl wants a guy with a good heart.
He just wants a son. God blessed him with twins.
Boy was he happy.
I grew up with one brother and avoided males. Males were pulled to me and did silly stuff to get my attention. That scared me. Having lots of guys showering me with attention, and wanting to give me stuff, doesn’t flatter me. It scares me, so growing up, I avoid most males.
It was giving birth to boys and raising them that I learned so much about males, many of my views of them changed. I still avoid them as much as I can.
Raising my sons was the happiest eighteen years of my life.
I made sure they could read and write by 3 years old so when they entered school, they wouldn’t slip through the crack of our overcrowded classroom of one teacher and more than forty students.
P.S. Their sixth-grade class had 59 children with one teacher. And she did a damn good job!
I don’t send my children to school; I go with them. I learn with them too.
We would walk to school every morning, and I give them a word to spell, and then we would sing the 2 and 3 timetables. In the evening to pick them up, that would be repeated. By the end of the week, they would know five new words. Then on Sunday they would spell all five words and repeat their two- and three-times table.
I believe to be good at math, knowing your timetables from 2 to 25 is important.
Spelling continued for months with them being able to spell many words.
One of them won a spelling bee for his school at six years old. Beating about sixteen schools in that region and more than thirty, six years old.
Along with knowing all of their timetables, I taught them mental math and how to read math. They scored high in math and became math champions for their grades every year. In the final year exam to enter high school, one got 96% and the other got 95% in math. In their Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate, CSEC, they both got distinction in math on their first try.
I learned that the male brain communicates differently with math and certain other subjects than the female brain. They were both left-handed. I don’t know if that helped, but I will be damn if I allow them to fail. I am aware that failure is a part of life. But if we can contribute to our children’s success by teaching them the right things from birth, why the hell not?
They need strong roots to anchor their growth, and parents aren’t here forever.
Through them, I gain strength fighting ego and high levels of testosterone, to keep them alive. While raising them, I learned how to go back to any age I wanted to, to gain knowledge and understanding I didn’t get because of my impatient teenage years. We went through puberty together, and it was a fight to keep raging hormones from disrupting their lives.
I grew up again with them at every age, and my wisdom remains intact. My husband was rougher because he believed that men must be tough. I believe that males are humans and must be allowed to be.
I don’t raise my sons to go with the norm of society. I want to know how they feel and why. I want them to think for themselves and allow no one in their heads. I show them ways to be themselves without fear while demanding that they take the time to know themselves and their world. Whatever we do, we do with confidence and joy.
We had fun, lots of fun. Because life taught me that when children think they are having fun, they will want to learn. And when a child wants to learn, nothing will stop them.
Boy did they want to learn.
They have large heads. I made sure to happily fill them with knowledge, wisdom, understanding, common sense, and everything else they need to live the world they want. And a damn good one too.
They love to eat. I enjoy baking and cooking. They became my guinea pigs. And boy did we have fun.
I demand they don’t become a statistic or burden on any economy anywhere in the world they go and I enjoy every moment of making my demands.
They would often laugh, then say, “What’s wrong with you Mom.”
I had to find creative ways to implant knowledge and wisdom that would etch itself into their brain and instincts with joy.
Our brain is programmed to remember naughty/bad, nice/happiness, and weird, which can go multiple ways.
As a black male and American, I began a fight to keep them alive.
Damn, I had lots of fun doing it too. I blackmailed, intimidate, manipulate, and negotiate innovatively, with my creative imagination. When they looked back, we laughed at some of the things I did to keep them focused, on track, and out of trouble.
I etched this happily into their brain as a child and let it grow with them, “when your best becomes your habit, failure will fear you.” — Annelise Lords
I demand they make failure fear them while learning from it.
Pure love and respect I give and get. They are still a work in process, but they have a lot to learn from life now that I am no longer nearby. Still have fun with my memories.
Thank Dancing Elephant Press and Dr. Singh for this exciting and fantastic prompt and the journey it took me on.
Feast on more fun and inspiration for our latest book.
Tank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoy it and will savor more from some talented writers on this platform, whose links are below.
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