He's a Boy!!!

When I gave birth to my son everyone told be to be prepared because boys are a handful and that they are hardheaded.  They said to be prepared to spend a lot of time in the emergency room because boys are adventurous daredevils.  They said that I'll find him hanging out of windows and jumping off garages.  They also said that I should be prepared for him to be destructive because that's how boys are.  I didn't pay any of that any attention.

I was going to have a good boy and not have any of those problems.  It didn't exactly turn out the way I thought it would.  Turns out, everything I was told about raising a boy was true. My son is 11 now and over the years there has been a lot of destruction (some accidental some on purpose), a few trips to the ER (one this week in fact) and he is VERY hardheaded.  I thought the hardheadedness was him be disrespectful toward me but it's not.  Boys learn by trial and error.  I can tell my son not to do something and he will do it anyway because he wants to see what will happen for himself even if that means he gets hurt or something gets broken.  The consequences never fit into the equation so he seldom thinks before he acts.  This has been more true over the last  two weeks than it ever has. The following is a list of what has gone wrong simply because he didn't listen to me.

1. His TV fell off the dresser because he kept jumping around in his room after I told him repeatedly to stop.  The TV didn't work the rest on the day. My son's response "you can just buy me another one".
2. A broken window in his room because he insisted on having the rocking chair in front of the window after I told him to to put it back in the corner.  He was actually shocked that the window broke. All I could say was "I told you so".
3. A broken dresser drawer because he put ALL of the rocks he collected from the beach in the drawer after I specifically told him not to.  His response was "I didn't think the rocks were that heavy".  
4. A broken bed because he decided to move his bed.  Now all the bolts that hold the bed frame together are loose and pulled out a little. Mind you it's a sleigh bed and it's not on wheels.
5. Small slits in the couch because he wasn't paying attention when his pet rabbit jumped up on the couch and clawed the couch. I have repeatedly told him to watch the rabbit and not to let him get on the furniture.
6. Stitches in his thumb and finger because he accidentally cut himself with a flat head screwdriver trying to take apart a toy.  I didn't find out that he hurt himself until 3 hours later.  His response "it didn't hurt that bad".  He knows that he is not allowed to use my tools without permission.  

When I told people about all the mishaps I've had with my son recently the only response I got was "well he's a boy". If someone tells me that one more time, I'M GOING TO SCREAM.!!!   So I'm just supposed to sit back and expect things like this to happen????  I think if he just listened to me we could avoid a lot of this mess.  I guess he will continue to learn the hard way and will continue to fix the things he breaks and drive him to the emergency room when he hurts himself because I am a mother.