No Place For Boys

a post by Jenni {aka Mom}

As a mother of three boys, I really appreciate prose and poetry about the gender. Each one of our sons is completely different from the others, yet all three share some distinct male characteristics in their personalities and thought processes. I enjoy being a mother of boys so, so much! Even though they're (sometimes inappropriately!) louder and more full of (sometimes annoying!) energy than most girls I know. Even though they present unique challenges in education, and try my patience in deeply sanctifying ways. Yes, I love having boys!

The following poem really resonated with me. I grew up with brothers, and I'm watching my sons grow. I'm watching the sons of friends grow as well. Let's take care that we make and keep a place for our boys. :)

No Place For Boys
(author unknown)

"What can a boy do, and where can a boy stay,
If he is always told to get out of the way?"

"He cannot sit here, and he must not stand there.
The cushions that cover the overstuffed chair
Were put there, of course, to be seen and admired;
A boy has no business to ever feel tired.
The beautiful roses and flowers that bloom
On the floor of the darkened and delicate room
Were not made to walk on - at least not by boys.
The house is no place, anyway, for their noise.

"Yet boys must walk somewhere and what if their feet,
Sent our of our houses, sent into the street,
Should step round the corner, and pause at the door
Where other boys' feet have paused often before?
Should pass through the gateway of glittering light
Where jokes that are merry and songs that are bright
Ring our a warm welcome with flattering voice,
And temptingly say, 'Here's a place for you boys!'

"Ah, what if they should? What if your boy or mine
Should cross o'er the threshold which marks out the line
'Twixt virtue and vice, 'twixt pureness and sin,
And leave all his innocent boyhood within?
O! what if they should, because you and I,
While the days and the months and the years hurry by,
Are too busy with cares and with life's fleeting joys
To make 'round our hearthstone a place for the boys?

"There's a place for the boys; they'll find it somewhere,
And if our own homes are too daintily fair
For the touch of their fingers, or the tread of their feet,
They'll find it, and find it alas, in the street
'Mid the gildings of sin and the glitter of vice.
For the getting of gain that our lifetime employs,
If we fail to provide a good place for the boys."

(taken from the book Soul Sculpture by E. F. & L. Harvey)