living with a housefull of 'the other s3x'?

Netwizard

Its not just limited to boys. Everyone burps, everyone farts and everyone I know swears!

neverdespairgirl

xXMessedUpXx wrote: »

I feel more sorry for my brother and dad sharing a house with 4 females

We used to dress my brother up in princess dresses and high heels :rotfl:

Same when I was growing up - my parents, 3 girls (including me) and the youngest is my Bruv. We dressed him up too, sometimes, but he didn't like it much!

marisco_2

My dad was a bit smug for a while when my mum had my older brother. The 2-1 dynamic soon changed when my twin sister and I arrived. Very shortly after an extension was added to the house, which made way for a second large bathroom and a separate loo. Forward thinking that came in handy when we hit our teen years. Especially when a female cousin moved in for a year. By this point my brother had left home and my dad was living with 4 women. At that stage he went grey.

Savvy_Sue

*Louise* wrote: »

but I get to do traditional girly things as well and there is Ballet and Barbie in my life now instead of just Cars and Lego!:D:j

All my 3 boys did ballet for a while: I felt much happier sending them than I would have done sending girls! DS2 was quite good too, and it was useful when his teacher started saying he didn't have very good coordination, and I could say "he doesn't look uncoordinated in his ballet class."

I admit that when I first sent DS3 to ballet, it was politely suggested that he should wait until he was a little older before starting. The teacher's idea of being a bunny rabbit involved delicate steps around the room with your hands under your face, like paws. DS3's interpretation was giant bunny hops around the room. :rotfl:

VestanPance

On what mythical planet do all these tidy women live?

Without fail the most clutter ridden, mess leaving beings I've ever encountered are all female. Trails of shoes from one end of the house to the other. Piles of clothes dumped on piles of clothes that somehow couldn't reach the washing basket a mere couple of metres away. Make-up, jewellery, keys, random household items stashed inside the clothing mountains that have arisen within the house. Bathrooms that have exploded full of every product ever created by the pharmaceutical industry.

I'm a tidy freak. The best part about living on my own is no mess and everything is where it should be and in the order it should be.

peachyprice

Raksha wrote: »

Do you EVER 'get used to' man smells, burping, farting, swearing, untidyness, laziness, selfishness?

Burping, that happens, but I can't say it's gratuitous
Farting, that only happens in the toilet regardless of sex
Swearing, I can't say any of mine swear when talking to me, what they do with their friends is a different matter
Untidyness, whatever state they keep their room in is their business, the boys don't migrate their stuff to the rest of the house, unlike my daughter who is the untidiest person in the house
Laziness, yes, teenagers certainly seem to be
Selfishness, can't say that's a particularly male trait here

If you let them get away with bad behaviour, well, they will behave badly.

Artytarty wrote: »

I have a few friends outnumbered by their sons,All bar one has lost their sense of femininity. By that I mean they tend to dress in a less "girly" way and tend not to bother som much with hair and makeup. I think a daughter can help keep a mum interested in fashion and on the right lines.

Completely disagree with this. I am who I am regardless of the sex of the majority of the household. I can't really see how they would influence the way I dress and groom in the least.

Gavin83

j.e.j. wrote: »

With regard to housework, I find boys/men prefer big jobs like cleaning the oven, to pottering about doing little jobs here and there.

Yeah thats certainly true. I personally prefer jobs where I can see an actual result as well.

While I don't have an issue doing housework and I don't think I'm particularly messy I do find my tolerance is a lot higher than my girlfriends. She'll often say that the floor needs hoovering or the room needs a tidy and it looks perfectly fine to me!

In my experience girls/women are as bad as, if not worse at swearing and farting than the guys are!

*Louise*

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

All my 3 boys did ballet for a while: I felt much happier sending them than I would have done sending girls! DS2 was quite good too, and it was useful when his teacher started saying he didn't have very good coordination, and I could say "he doesn't look uncoordinated in his ballet class."

Oh I did suggest that to DS2......the look on his face - you would have thought I had asked him to spray himself pink and pirouette to school :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

marisco_2

VestanPance wrote: »

On what mythical planet do all these tidy women live?

Without fail the most clutter ridden, mess leaving beings I've ever encountered are all female.

Very true. Like a good wine some of us do improve with age though. As a child and well into my teens I was extremely messy and unorganised. Just after my 16th birthday my childhood home was burgled, and on walking into my room my dad still claims to this day to have noticed no difference to the general state he had come to expect. A total exageration as drawers were tipped on the floor etc.

I am now what would be classed as OCD tidy. I cant bare mess or clutter. Much to the amusement of my folks, who enjoy nothing more than to come round and encourage my kids to get all their toys out. They then clear off home and leave me to persuade the boys to tidy up with me :cool:

DigForVictory

Husband, 3 boys, no sense of smell.

Husband & son#2 have occasional OCD outbreaks but since the blond element (us other 3) have no such drive, we just muddle through.

I haven't lost my sense of femininity as a result of the chaps - I had it beaten out of me at a very results oriented girls school. I can't paint my face but I can spell in five languages. The 'placement' of a dinner party is something I would figure with a random number generator - in fact our 'guests' are friends who share the family meal. (Our bachelor godfathers cope remarkably well with it. Our require a chair parents, rather less so.)

Very clear rules about spills. Likewise about burps & farts - apologise & open window (shut on request.)
Swearing comes & goes in phases & as parents we try to quell it. within reason - when you drop a tin of soup on your foot, you have to be allowed to say *something* & "oh gosh" is not usually the first phrase from my lips.
Untidyness - well, let she who is without sin struggle to maintain the moral high ground. (I've been known to offer a fiver to whomever can find the satnav.)
Laziness - having trained the lads carefully, I get away with doing very little (but then I work fulltime & Dad is the SAHP.)
Selfishness - where one brother is being a toad in earshot, they are called a toad, initialy by the irate brother & (over a certain volume) we enquire. (OmbudsMum...) Our decisions are swift & petty. If X is hanging onto something just to spite Y, we will tell X to hand over. If X has a sporting pretext, we will applaud his pretext, consider it & possibly tell him to hand over anyway (whilst binding Y over to keep item in a reasonable state).
Bathroom - I have the most hair products at the moment, but their personal grooming requisites smell worse. (I can *taste* them.)

Diligent training by husband means they have lovely manners outside the house & if they want friends to come & play, we need notice, parental contact & the 'host' to do most of the cleaning. Which results in a suddenly show home clear & clean hall stairs landing & bathroom, even if other doors are strategically tight shut.

Occasionally a son will go on a cleaning jag & his room will suddenly have a patch of visible carpet. As well as four trugs of laundry as the floordrobe gets cleared back into the washing machine... I'm in several minds about how best to procede from there - encourage them to clear the whole floor in exchange for a shampooed clean carpet? Remind them that all clothing that no longer fits has at least three possible places to go? (Think I may just have seen why it doesn't happen!)

Some days I feel mildly sorry for my father, outnumbered by women, but he had democracy (one man, one vote - he was the man & he had the vote) nailed long before we could sit up... These days I find she who holds the bank card has a startling amount of say, other days I'm just their blinking donkey. Who is bought off with a mug of tea. (Hey, I'll accept small victories! These big long-drawn-out wars are hell on the nervous system...)

If a son gives me something pink, he better have a really good reason. My gear is usually in olive drab, black or other earth tones - with my kindle as the exception - kermit greeen so I can spot it quickly. (Theirs are scarlet, black & purple for identification.)

As for not interested in curtains, decoration etc - when a son got his own room, he required a second cushion for the windowseat "so it loooked right". Blaming Lawrence Lewellyn-Bowen and after school TV, I managed to source said matching cushion. When the others swap rooms, I anticipate strong words over the colour charts etc. But also help from the taller ones, actually painting.

Years ago I was asked if I didn't want daughters? No. I wanted sons. Ex-biker, ex-caver, fan of leaping into puddles, kicking piles of dead leaves - I'm more inclined to see risky as fun than some mothers & anyway, I cordially hate Barbie.

So other than wondering what new & strange enthusiasm they will hurtle off after next (girls? cars? steam trains?), I wouldn't change a thing.