Well, I did it again – I filled my home with about a dozen teen boys for the better part of a weekend!
Some of my friends think I’m a bit nuts when I choose to invite droves of teenagers over. They don’t quite get why I would choose to fill my home with all the noise, the eating, the shoving, the laughter, the dirt, the smells, the in and out. They ask, “Isn’t it just too much trouble?”
Yeah…it is a bit of pain, but the rewards outweigh the trouble for sure. It’s a major win to have teen boys at our home having good clean fun and enjoying every minute of it. There are many choices offered by the world and when a weekend of simple fun at our home is what these boys choose – that’s a great thing.
And hospitality is something that even young men need to learn about! My son chose the menu and helped me in the kitchen by chopping veggies so the fellas could create their own personal “tin foil meal” and as the first arrivals showed up they were put to work in the kitchen too. They all cleaned up after themselves and I heard several deep voices shouting out, “Can I do anything to help you Mrs. Eyster?”
Teen boys are so very willing to step up and do what’s asked of them. For that matter even little boys are, as our home has always been full of kids and they’ve learned through the years that I will put them to work and they like pitching in.
Breakfast was especially fun as I was making pancakes for about an hour…as long as I was making…they kept eating! I think we were seeing who could last longer, me flipping and them consuming!
They spent their time mostly outdoors doing guy stuff, being loud, getting dirty, shoving, shouting, romping, laughing, grunting, there was a fire pit involved and some air soft capture the flag activities. And of course a late night Kinect track and field meet! (Best Christmas gift ever – we have had hours of active fun with that thing!)
You know what…boys just like to be boys and I am grateful my husband has taught me how to go with the flow and let them be in man training around our home! Yeah, they smell bad and they eat a lot, but all moms like it when their efforts are appreciated and I get a massive amount of thank you’s and shouts of, “That was the best ever Mrs. E!”
It’s worth it moms, I suggest you give it a try – open your home to lots of kids frequently, it will make your life fuller in so many ways!
Some of my best-ever memories revolve around teen boys “invading” my home! I love young men who may not smell like young women, but, they’re not supposed to! They bring so much reality into our lives, and as a reward, there is nothing like it when ten years from now, they show up unexpectedly at your front door, “just to say, “Hi, Mrs. (fill in the blank)!” You better brace yourself when that happens, because you’re about to get a man-sized bear hug!!