Nature or Nurture?
On St. Patrick's day my ten year old son, Cub, took his kilt to school and put it on at lunchtime for the class party in the afternoon. It's a MacLean Hunting tartan and has some green in it.
In the schoolyard he was asked numerous times, "Why are you wearing a skirt?" Sometimes he was asked by groups of kids.
He tells me every time he replied, "It's a kilt. You got a problem with it?"
Only one kid had a problem but nothing came of it. The rest left him alone. Cub isn't a small kid and he's got a brother five years older to wrestle with.
I think Cub handled himself well. He sees me getting similar questions all the time and knows some of the retorts but I think he just can't be bothered with them.
I know he understands the whole garment vs costume question well because he sometimes tells me, "It's just a kilt."
I think he learned some of his behaviour characteristics from me, but I also think some of it is in the genes. I don't know if there is an either/or answer to the nature vs nurture question.
What I do know is that Cub handled a problem that a lot of adults have a very difficult time with, in a schoolyard that doesn't tolerate differences as much as adult places.
I didn't ask him to wear the kilt to school. He told me he was going to wear it and just went ahead and wore it because he knows there is nothing wrong with kilts. That much I taught him. Nurture.
He faced down the schoolyard yappers all by himself. Nature.
I'm proud of him, naturally. He has the guts to wear the kilt and to defend his choice. He is becoming his own man.
I'll think of that day whenever I hear or read about a full grown man not having the guts to wear a kilt.
In the schoolyard he was asked numerous times, "Why are you wearing a skirt?" Sometimes he was asked by groups of kids.
He tells me every time he replied, "It's a kilt. You got a problem with it?"
Only one kid had a problem but nothing came of it. The rest left him alone. Cub isn't a small kid and he's got a brother five years older to wrestle with.
I think Cub handled himself well. He sees me getting similar questions all the time and knows some of the retorts but I think he just can't be bothered with them.
I know he understands the whole garment vs costume question well because he sometimes tells me, "It's just a kilt."
I think he learned some of his behaviour characteristics from me, but I also think some of it is in the genes. I don't know if there is an either/or answer to the nature vs nurture question.
What I do know is that Cub handled a problem that a lot of adults have a very difficult time with, in a schoolyard that doesn't tolerate differences as much as adult places.
I didn't ask him to wear the kilt to school. He told me he was going to wear it and just went ahead and wore it because he knows there is nothing wrong with kilts. That much I taught him. Nurture.
He faced down the schoolyard yappers all by himself. Nature.
I'm proud of him, naturally. He has the guts to wear the kilt and to defend his choice. He is becoming his own man.
I'll think of that day whenever I hear or read about a full grown man not having the guts to wear a kilt.