If you have read some of my past posts, you know I grew up with five brothers, and I am thankful for that. I went through a tomboy stage (when a girl who exhibits characteristics or behaviors considered typical of a boy. Common characteristics include wearing masculine clothing and engaging in games and activities that are physical in nature and are considered in many cultures to be unfeminine or the domain of boy) between nine and twelve years of age. This is the stage of my life which I believe groomed me to be the physically and mentally tough-minded woman I am today. However, the years prior to being a tomboy, I was a bit of a cry baby. My five brothers loved me, but were my greatest tormentors. They knew how precious my collection of Barbie dolls was to me, so unprovoked and without any apparent reason, they would pull the heads off my Barbie dolls and do downright mean things to them to watch me cry. Boys.
I cannot remember when the transformation happened to me to stop crying like a baby, and allowing my brothers to have that power over me, but it happened! When they would pull the heads off my Barbie dolls, I would simply pretend I no longer cared, even though I did, but I would not let them see me cry. I decided to turn the tables and go after something that was precious to them – TOY SOLDIERS! I would go after the soldiers of the brother I thought had been the cruelest to me. I would hide two ore more of the soldiers that were their prized possessions, then watch them accuse one of my other brothers of taking them. I would never let on that I had them, and oddly enough they never suspected me, so I would go about playing with my dolls. It was fun watching the in-fighting of my tormentors. I would eventually place their toy soldiers somewhere they would stumbled upon them, and leaving them to feel they must have forgotten they put them there. While my brothers played war games with their plastic green toy soldiers, they did not have a clue as to how to be strategic, and had a lot to learn about doing battle.
