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Dad’s View versus Mom’s View / Example #1

A dad's view about life usually differs from a mom's view, and it's no different in this household.  I will typically defer to my wife about girl issues while she defers to me about boy situations.  After all, I've never experienced life as a girl and my wife has never had a jockstrap placed over her face in a junior high locker room (aka the japanese gasmask).

This valley was displayed in our response to eldest son's return from a boy scout camping trip to northern Pennsylvania.  His troop went to a scout's cabin and property near the New York state line and the group dispersed to the appropriate rooms for changing and sleep arrangements.  In this case, the male and female leaders got their own separate rooms while the cabin owners took another, leaving the last bedroom and it's beds for the scouts.  My son and the younger scouts were the first to the room to claim bunks with their bags and were surprised to find that the older scouts arrived and tossed said bags in the hallway.  The younger scouts then had to claim sofas and floor space in the living room for the duration of the trip.

As our son explained the situation, my wife was taken aback that the older scouts could and did do this.  What right do they have to just displace these boys?  I could only smile and explain to my son that this was a part of life and that "rank did have it's privileges".  The reality is that upon arrival, the younger scouts disappeared to lay claim while the older boys were delayed by staying to help unload the vehicles.  This was simply a group of guys' silent way of teaching upstart youngsters that they couldn't benefit from not helping.  No complaints or arguments, just a simple action to prove a point.  And while it may sound sexist, I expect that the result would have been vastly different had it been a group of girl scouts.

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