This is Lainey, she’s what my friends call an ethically sourced goldendoodle (her mom was rescued from a puppy mill and Lainey was born in the shelter) and these are her two roommates Luna and Salem. They’re both indoor cats but Salem enjoys supervised sun time outside.

We as a society wouldn’t let girls act this way, it’s not “ladylike”. And it’s not even all of my boys. But when every chance for redirection or correction in your life has been glossed over by “boys will be boys” why change your behavior? The consequence is that you eventually fall behind.

And I want to note that these are to my knowledge neurotypical boys. I have ND boys too. I can see the difference between truly being unable to control hyperactivity and simply not wanting to. Generally speaking, the truly hyperactive kids don’t feel the need to engage/intentionally distract others

Now all of this is one thing. But I think issues like this are compounded because this anti-social behavior that they’re demonstrating so often gets excused as “oh they’re just boys being boys” or “oh they’re just busy/active/whatever sugar coated term you want to use for impulsive.

They are constantly pushing, shoving, hitting, reaching to touch each other’s Chromebook, and usually it’s all playful until it’s not. But I truly mean it is constant. I can hardly take my attention off them for a minute. I tell them literally every day they need to keep their hands to themselves

When they’re not playing they’re talking about their conquests or watching youtubers play fortnight. It consumes their entire existence. This group also cannot for the life of them keep their hands off each other. Or each other’s things.

I know reason 1 sounds very boomer but the problem is fully unrestricted game time causes developing minds to constantly be seeking their next dopamine hit. I have a group of bots this year who are constantly on fortnight. It’s literally all they talk about.

From what I can see, boys have a noticeably diminished ability to regulate their emotions and impulses and demonstrate self control. There can be a lot of variables here but anecdotally I see two constants. 1) video games/screen time and 2) the adage “boys will be boys!”

I actually looked it up because I didn’t really know either but I knew this one felt wrong. Wally’s head is more of an oblong oval shape

It’s the head of the Boston Red Sox mascot but it’s probably from temu. It is lurking in the corner of the dugout half shrouded by shadows.