Two boys, half a brain
Someone once told me "One boy, one brain. Two boys, half a brain."
At the time, I thought it was a rather rude thing to say. Since then, however, I've seen this maxim at work on several occassions.
Episode 1:
Boy watching TV from bed. Enter Second Boy. Two boys now standing on bed, hitting their own heads with their fists, and hurdling themselves to the floor.
Episode 2:
Boy coloring quietly. Enter Second Boy. Two boys now flinging the crayons every which way.
Episode 3:
Boy riding his scooter. Enter Second Boy. Two boys now having flying scooter contests.
The thing I don't understand is how quickly these bazaar ideas can hatch. It isn't like I wasn't within hearing and so missed the negotiations of exactly what half-baked plan the two would engage in. I was there, I was paying attention, and I still missed the negotiations. These scenarios aren't even with the same boys.
And while I'm on the subject of boys and brains, can anyone help me understand why it is so entertaining to boy children to bang their head with fists, lincoln logs, walls, hands, closet doors, plastic hammers, and jungle gym equipment?
At the time, I thought it was a rather rude thing to say. Since then, however, I've seen this maxim at work on several occassions.
Episode 1:
Boy watching TV from bed. Enter Second Boy. Two boys now standing on bed, hitting their own heads with their fists, and hurdling themselves to the floor.
Episode 2:
Boy coloring quietly. Enter Second Boy. Two boys now flinging the crayons every which way.
Episode 3:
Boy riding his scooter. Enter Second Boy. Two boys now having flying scooter contests.
The thing I don't understand is how quickly these bazaar ideas can hatch. It isn't like I wasn't within hearing and so missed the negotiations of exactly what half-baked plan the two would engage in. I was there, I was paying attention, and I still missed the negotiations. These scenarios aren't even with the same boys.
And while I'm on the subject of boys and brains, can anyone help me understand why it is so entertaining to boy children to bang their head with fists, lincoln logs, walls, hands, closet doors, plastic hammers, and jungle gym equipment?
Comments
Freud called this urge for destruction "thanatos", or the "death impulse", but I think Freud was a ding-dong, so I won't go into that.
My theory about the "negotiations" that you missed is that there were none. The arrival of another male child on the scene served as a stimulus for the brain to transfer it's activity from the calm rational sector to the "banging head with lincoln-logs" sector.
I have found that in young adult females, this transfer occurs when the brain receives a stimulus of excedingly boring homework assignments, such as the one I am avoiding right now.
Excuse me, I have to go find my lincoln logs.
I completely understand you when you said the amazing thing was not that they did it, but that the idea even occurred to them to do it. Shows the creativity of children, I suppose...