And the winner is...

I grew up with three brothers, in a neighborhood of all boys, so I'm not often shocked by boy behavior. Sometimes, though, I am surprised.

One of those times occurred recently, when Mark shared a proud moment from school.

"Guess what, Mom?" he asked. "I won the contest!"

He sounded so pleased that I smiled, immediately proud of whatever he'd accomplished.

"That's great, Mark! Which contest?"

"I have the stinkiest feet at school!"

...and I immediately recoiled in horror.

"You what?" I asked, hoping I'd heard incorrectly.

"The stinkiest feet," he repeated. "Mine smelled the worst out of all my friends."

"Did you all smell each others' feet?" I asked, and silently prayed the answer was no.

"No," he scoffed at the ridiculous question. "We smelled each other's shoes. Kyle almost fell over when he smelled mine."

And that is the difference between boys and girls, I thought. It had never ever occurred to me to smell my friends' shoes. (Especially after they'd worn them!) The other difference in gender is that if a girl had been voted stinkiest feet, I think she'd come home in tears, not puffed up with pride.

But Mark took his victory seriously. He refused to take a shower, leery of losing his title. I, however, insisted, and told him he would lose a lot more if he didn't clean those feet immediately. As he laid in bed afterwards, he saw another benefit to being the smelly feet champion.

"Hey, Mom!" he called out. "I figured out why I don't have bedbugs in my bed!"

"Oh, yeah?" I asked (I hadn't realized this was even a possibility). "Why not?"

"It's because my feet smell so bad. It scares the bed bugs away. Isn't that lucky?"

"It is," I agreed. I smiled at him, as he rolled over happily and fell asleep.

I'm not as proud of his smelly feet as he is, but hey, if it keeps the bedbugs away, can't be all that bad, huh? It is cheaper than an exterminator, after all.