There’s no doubt in my mind that having sons, or even a single son before daughters will somehow affect the rest of your offspring.
Let’s just say I know from experience.
Starting the batting order with a boy won’t leave you with little princesses who love pink. It is, however, the perfect recipe to make up some tomboy daughters — older brothers are very, very influential.
I don’t think my mom knew what she was getting when the doctor broke the news that she was having triplet girls.
I imagine she first saw fear, which was followed by images of bows, tutus, exclusive tea parties and lots of tears. Instead she got backward hats, jean shorts, competitive sports and wrestling matches to solve any issue, which in turn induced fear.
Growing up, Evan, Dana and I did a lot of things that were probably frowned upon for girls. When asked why we did them, the answer was usually the same: “Well, Wade does it.”
We would mimic Wade’s actions, style, language and essentially his entire way of life.
He was probably constantly annoyed, or what’s that old saying? “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Yeah, you’ll have to ask him how true that statement rings. Experience tells me his feelings weren't of the flattery variety.
There was the year (read: 2 years) that we wore work boots every damn day. Summer didn’t stop us; we just paired our Timberlands (I wish we were that ahead of the trend) with shorts. We exuded class.
Looking back, they were probably my most practical shoe to date.
The surface hasn't even been scratched on how deep the tomboy life runs.
My childhood consisted of building forts, playing backyard baseball, making friends only with the best kickball playing guys on the playground and throwing temper tantrums when dresses were laid out.
Sorry, mom. About these things and oh so much more.
For the record, we did try to be girls for a little while. We talked my mom in to enrolling us in cheer class. That was fun for the sole purpose of annoying my dad and brother with repetitive chanting five, six, 12 times in a row.
I’d just hate for anyone to think we didn’t give being girly-girls a fair shot.
I’d say we weighed our options, maybe made a pros/cons list and then ultimately decided tree houses were cooler than dollhouses and mud under the nails was better than paint on top of them.
For any concerned mothers out there, the tomboy way of life comes recommended from three out of three Willsey daughters. And we turned out fine ... right?