Needing a Little Girl Time

In the past month something in Graham has snapped.  The kid has been out of control naughty!  Not just not listening, but doing actual naughty things like breaking stuff, talking back, screaming NO, and pushing, fighting, hitting... You name it, he's tried in the last 4 weeks.  I was about at my wits end with the kid. 

I had stopped taking him to playdates for fear that he'd just bully the other kids and spend the majority of the date in timeout.  We haven't brought him to church because I'm afraid to leave him in the nursery and let's be honest he's not going to behave sitting in church.  So does this mean that Graham and I are going to be completely homebound this summer until he straightens up?  I think I might need to start looking for a job outside the home  :)

Anyway, I wanted to give it one last shot before I packed 'us' in for the summer.  I had been talking with Leah and Sarah for sometime about doing a playdate, and since I figured this would be our last hoorah, it would be nice to catch up with the gals.  I had expectations of the usual: kids come over, Graham is super excited to see them, we go down stairs to start playing with toys and... the meltdowns begin.  The other kids aren't allowed to touch any of Graham's toys, he screams and takes away anything they touch, then the tears, I could go on, but I'm sure you're envisioning the awesomeness already.  But today was surprisingly different. 

Graham was by no means and angel, he's still 2 and is very strong willed, but he managed to get through nearly 2 hours of playing without having to be in timeout once and with only having to have a couple sharp reminders about being nice and sharing.  It may not seem like a victory to the average Joe, as this is what most playdates should look like, but I was astounded.  I kept telling Leah and Sarah over and over again about how I can't believe there hadn't been any fighting.  I'm sure the majority had to do with the fact the both Leah and Sarah's kids are very well-behaved and have very good, I'd go as far as saying advanced manners for their age.  But someone also mentioned maybe it's the pretty even ratio of boys to girls and that got me thinking.

Leah brought Belle and Johny and Sarah brought Julia and Hannah, 2 boys and 3 girls.  Was that really the difference?  After everyone left I sat down and starting thinking and I honestly can't put a date to the last time we had a playdate with girls, especially more girls than boys.  Every playdate we've been on in the last 6 months has had almost all little boys ages 3 to 1 and honestly the outright naughtiness of the little boys is enough to drive  any mom to the loony bin.  But today, the kids played quieter and more nicely/ gently.  There wasn't has much rough-housing, and therefore less bumps and bruises to cry over.  Ah, it was just so nice  :)   

My thought process before was always 'well Graham is a little boy and we have boy toys, so I'm sure he'd love another little boy to play with.'  But maybe the macho, competitive, beat 'em up, typical guy stigma really starts at birth and putting too many little bottles of testosterone in the same confined space is just asking for aggressive behavior.  So no offense to my mom friends with boys, we will still make dates and let the boys 'duke it out,' but I am somewhat excited to test my theory... do little boys sometimes just need some girl time?