Daughter Mows Lawn, Son Fries Eggs

Strange morning it was on Monday, July 21, 2008. Earlier that morning, our son asked, “Dad, can I fry eggs for breakfast?” At first, I said, “No, you don’t have enough time before your football camp.” Then I realized the camp would start an hour later than I remembered.

“Yes, you may fry some eggs,” I gave him the green light.

That same morning, our 14-year-old daughter got my attention with this strange request: “Can I mow the lawn?”

“Hahn?” I asked … shocked.

She seemed serious. “I want to mow the lawn to get paid $10.”

“Why does she want to fool with the lawn mower?” I asked mentally. “She got paid $50 a couple of weeks ago for typing my 164-page Liberian war journal. And now she wants to risk ripping into her legs with a lawn mow in the name of 10 bucks?”

Certain that there was no way this muscle-challenge young lady would survive that Craft lawn mower, I followed her behind the house to go through the motions in order to prove one point: This is NOT a girl’s job!

“OK. First, this is how you pull the lawn mower out of the shed. It’s kind of heavy. Second, you check the gasoline tank to see if it needs gas. Third, you check the engine oil level. Then you prime it about 5 times to get some gas to the engine. Now, you pull and hold this handle; push this part to the Start position; and you pull on the rope with some real force.”

I started the machine only to shut it off. She took over and got several weak pulls and false starts. I thought it was only fair to coach her some more, just to remove all doubts that I had given her a fair shot like I would have done with her brother.

“Left foot in front; right foot behind; bend forward a little; then lean back as you pull on the rope to get the engine going. Once it’s running, you push this one to the Throttle position, and you’re ready to mow!”

Daneto stepped up again. After a few more false starts, she had that thing roaring, then humming. With that, I left my daughter on the lawn and re-entered the house, expecting the girl to turn her back on the lawn mower and join me in the house any time soon.

“She’ll find out that pushing a lawn mower is a boy’s job,” I told myself.

Finally, I shouted one more command, “Keep your feet away from the blades at all costs.”

The last thing I wanted was the blade slicing into that girl’s sneakers.

“Boy what would her mom think of me, if she were to come home from work and see her daughter injured by the lawn mow? Well, dear, she insisted on cutting the lawn for money!”

In about 20 minutes later that girl had mowed along the sides of the house and the entire backyard, except for a strip of grass along our neighbor’s fence.

Meanwhile, Tojyea (T), our son did a good job too, frying those eggs. But somehow I wished he were the one behind the lawn mower and his teenage sister in the kitchen working those eggs.

Did I say my son CAN mow the lawn too? OK, yes, he does mow the lawn, and every time he does, he gets paid … you guessed it … $10.

Feminine Sons: Daughters to the Rescue

It takes strong men to defend a nation, especially in times of war. Preparing for war is more than stockpiling weapons; it includes raising boys to be boys.

We need to learn from our friends in the Muslim world; they train their boys to be brave, militant. I’m not talking about Muslim extremists or Islamic terrorists; I’m speaking of regular Muslims. They still believe that boys should be strong, brave, warlike, even war-ready.

On the other hand, some Western societies seem to be doing everything to tame their sons, so they can be “sensitive” like little girls. Need I mention that some of the boys are being “groomed” to become the wives of other men in same-sex marriages? (I know, some will call me homophobic.)

We will have to choose between our survival and being political correct.

The scary truth is, if America were to be dragged into another prolonged truly global war, like World War I and World War II, our population may no longer be able to stomach the sheer force it might require to win such a war. Why not? Because so many American men have become feminized, that’s why. The society as a whole can hardly stand seeing war casualties in the tens of thousands. We’ve seen the evidence from the Iraq war. Americans grew very nervous as the body count climbed, and CNN liked to tally the body bags. Millions of Americans began to call for an end to the Iraq War.

In another global war, with various nations lined up on either side, the camp that has the guts to stomach a higher number of war-dead will be favored to win such a war. And the side whose citizens cringe from the site of bombings, blood and deformed bodies may well become conquered territory.

Unless, Americans reverse how we bring up our boys, I’m afraid we may be digging our own graves by turning our sons into daughters. If we continue down the road of feminizing our sons, our daughters will have no brothers strong enough, tough enough to take up for them, to fight for them, to defend them. Or perhaps luck may have it that while we tame our boys into girls, we may also succeed in turning our girls into what we used to call boys.

There is some of that going on too ~ I mean making boys out of girls. The other day, on national TV, a mother was shown pleading for her daughter who wants to play football with the boys. That little girl sounded so confident, she could easily pass for a brave, little boy. This, in a culture, where some boys are taking the tryout to become cheerleaders! Could it be that it will take our daughters, sisters, and mothers to save us, after all? It’s like the return of Joan of Arc. Hey, I suppose girly men won’t mind being rescued by manly women.