The other day it was super hot out and so I text my sister to see if she was up for meeting me at Dads for a swim. My two boys were very excited to be heading to Grampa’s to take a dip in the pool, I think it was like 91 degrees and so hot, a slight breeze would come through every so often and it felt GOOD. As I packed the boys up in the car and all our swimming gear, towels and extra clothing as well as diapers we drove the 25 minutes or so to my father’s house to take a dip. While we were there waiting for my sister and her boyfriend to show up I let AJ play in the driveway and farm yard.

My son who will be four in a few weeks was going crazy chasing these two or three pretty yellow butterflies, but he called them moths. I thought he was being a kid and actually just wanted to touch one of them, but little did I know he was on the prowl to kill a “bad moth” those were the words of my son as he ran and was breathing hard due to the heat. Yes my son, sweet AJ, wasn’t trying to simply catch these butterflies, he was convinced they were “bad moths” and determined to kill them. It always makes me wonder where my son comes up with these ideas, such as the idea of killing something. Both my sons seem to have been born with the idea that it’s cool to kill bugs dead, and AJ uses that word “I’m gonna kill these bugs dead”. I sure as heck haven’t taught them that, I think it must be a boy thing for sure!

So AJ kept running and running as I watched him chase these beautiful yellow butterflies around, next thing I know he has two flat rocks in his hand and he is slowly walking up to the butterflies that have landed at this time and is looking pretty mean. I reminded AJ that he is not to throw rocks so what is he up to with that look and the two rocks in hand? He replied that he is going to kill those bad moths and isn’t throwing rocks he is dropping them on top of the bad moths so it makes them dead!! My jaw dropped, I half wanted to cry because my son wanted to kill something and always is aggressive like that but then I simply laughed because he is a boy and boys love to kill insects. Although these were two or three very beautiful yellow butterflies. So he kept on this until about the time Baby K woke up and then he gave up on killing those “bad moths” and moved on to playing with toy tractors and cars!

Full disclosure: No butterflies, insects nor people were hurt during this situation!

Questions for Thought: Have you noticed a difference between boys and girls? What are some things your son says that make you wonder where they got it from?