Sketchy Skills

I live in what I would call a questionable neighborhood. It’s not quite advertised that way when looking for rentals in town. I don’t even know all the statistics about the area, but we have had plenty of action happening since I moved in. From the common things of break-ins and stolen items off the porch to the helicopter-raided drug bust. There’s been other things happening, but let’s just leave it at that.

The thing is, I live here by choice. I could “afford” to live at other complexes or rent a house, but that housing choice doesn’t come with the greatest amenity that this apartment complex has provided us with. Jungle boy is learning how to be a boy here. I know it sounds odd, but here is the setting. Both the playground and the pool are at the back of my apartment. The apartment complex has been full of boys of varying ages. There is a constant population of kids right outside my backdoor. Jungle boy’s next closest sibling in age is twelve years older than him. So that leaves out the growing into your own with the support and pressure of siblings. He has both his father, and me, his mother in his life to “teach” him things. To guide him and in a way mold him. But there is no comparison to what boys can teach each other.

Jungle boy has come a long way since we moved here. He was barely two and in full toddler beast mode. I’m not sure how the Universe can create such a force of energy into a single human form. But he has gone from outbursts that were near unmanageable to now vocalizing in words how he feels and how he would like situations to be handled. Of course some of that was under the guidance of both his father and myself. Setting boundaries and helping him express himself in other ways than spewing emotional tornadoes at his environment and whoever occupies it.

But the influence of being around peers has helped him grow in ways none of his family members could. All of us bringing in only what we know, and being supportive of him in that way, does not equal to what his peers bring to the table. He is learning to stand up for himself without resorting to lashing out. He is learning to share without being taken advantage of. He is learning team play in order to have fun without the focus having to be on him at all times. He is learning how to lose. At this point he is still a sore loser and has his ways of attempting to cheat or “play dirty” to win. He is learning the whole sociable aspect of being part of society that I can’t teach him in my singular form. How sociable he wants to be and how much he chooses to interact as a part of society will be up to him once he is old enough to make those decisions. Being around his peers during his formative years will help him develop skills that will keep him afloat in society no matter how much he chooses to be a part of it or not.