Just finished reading It's a Boy!: Your Son's Development from Birth to Age 18 by Michael Thompson, Ph.D., which was recommended by a mom friend of mine who is a teacher and read it with the rest of her school as part of their annual group reading program. I completely recommend it for all moms (females!) of boys (males!), as it efficiently explains the developmental stages to come, how boys may differ from girls, and how the "boy code" and the evolution into manhood effect your small person (soon to be a big person).

Now, as much as I appreciated this book, my overwhelming response was some combination of (a) outright denial--oh no, my son will never be like this, and (b) Tumblr-style DO NOT WANT. The reading problems, the fart-humor phase, the spastic energy, the boy-on-boy bruising trash talk and brawling...it all just sounds awful. Now, I know that's because I AM A GIRL, and I know that the Genghis Khan/Don Draper of it all is what MAKES THE WORLD, but dear lord, do you have to be such unreasonable assholes about it all? Ugh. SO...besides the fact that I'm now terrified about having a son (in a more informed way), here are some takeaways:

• Definitely getting the kid a study-skills class somewhere between fifth and seventh grade (or earlier?). The author recommends such a thing as a palliative for the "disorganized" boy that emerges at about age eight and can get worse from there.
• If I wasn't already fanatical about teaching the kid to read before school in hopes of avoiding the nightmare suffered by my mother upon her discovery that LAUSD was not equipped to teach my learning disabled/dyslexic brothers, this book underlined that boys in particular struggle with the demands of the schoolroom and that falling behind in school at an early age can be devastating. Fanaticism now goes to 11! 
• I'll take just about everything in this book as another reason to stay married to my baby daddy. In fact, after reading this book I'm beginning to suspect that the whole reason to have a husband may be so that you have someone to manage your boys once they become, you know, boys!
• Boys are awesome, and if you can keep them from jumping off the roof to their deaths when they are 11, they will eventually reward you by turning into great young men.