If you’re a parent of one or more boys, you’ve discovered that boys take an odd delight in breaking out of standard conventions and doing things that seem a bit - well, primitive.

Like peeing in the woods.

Even if there’s a perfectly suitable bathroom 125 feet away, most boys will be more than happy to drop their drawers when and where the urge hits them, and go “au naturel” before any and all watching flora, fauna, and bemused (or horrified) parents.

If that’s your kid, then be relieved as he relieves himself. He’s normal.

Boys, you see, have an innate need to not be confined. While everyone knows that all males eventually need some degree of domestication, all boys/young men/men also need to periodically toss aside certain conventions and let it all hang out, so to speak. While it might not be best to encourage such behavior in the middle of a crowded mall, a quick pee in the woods never hurt anyone.

Boys need rules, of course. But they also need room. Room to hit things with sticks, room to wrestle for no reason, room to explore and conquer, room to escape the careful order of domesticity and go make a mess somewhere. Boys need to jump off branches, scrape their knees, chop wood with an ax, and occasionally, pee in the woods. Channel the energy and drive as best you can, but don’t stifle it or try to alter the wiring. Confident men who can lead are simply grown boys who pushed the limits and were allowed to “prove” themselves.

There’ll be plenty enough confinement and “domestication” later, when work and family responsibilities descend. Tame what you can while they’re little, but give plenty of leash also. Enough to reach behind that tree in the woods, where your little boy (and sometimes even your grown man!) delights to pee on occasion…

Kymberli Mulford is the proud mom of a grade-schooler and high-schooler in the Chicago suburbs, and the proud grandmother of her now-grown stepson’s four children. When she’s not shuttling her sons from one activity to another, she works in the world of educational technology – as a district administrator, a learning facilitator, a consultant, and as a blogger at Onionskin. For more of Kymberli’s “mom” posts click here!

I spent the day yesterday with my youngest son and his new buddy.

Actually, my son has been friends with him for a while, but I’d not yet met this particular little guy until a few weeks ago. The summer has provided a nice opportunity for us to invite classmates over and get to know them better before third grade next fall.

After the obligatory hour on the computers, and after a little backyard play, they were ready for something different. We headed to a favorite local spot in town, where I hoped the boys would get “pulled in” to ordinary boy activities - and I packed my book (Brain Rules).

First stop was the creek. The boys ate lunch on the bank and were not even finished eating before the lure of nature called them to do what boys do - wade and try to catch the streamlife beneath the surface.

Eventually, they decided that they’d throw a few poles in the water, and my guy caught his first fish. (Really his second, but the first was at a trout farm, so I’m not counting that one…) Bait of choice? A small pinch of leftover bean burrito. Snapped the photo and threw that tiny little guy back in the pond.

The boys returned to exploring the stream, and I went back to reading Medina. Somewhere in the middle of the chapter on Attention, they decided that feeding the ducks and swans across the pond would be more fun. We packed up everything and trotted to the other side of the pond to feed the waterfowl some wonderful stale white bread.

The boys climbed on our favorite landscape art, and then moved on to walking along the “logs” which are really trees that just grow horizontal trunks. Always good for great photo opps.

I guess I was happiest at the end of the day that this was a somewhat “wholesome” and “boyish” day for these two kids. They did the things I think that boys are supposed to do during the summer. And best of all, no one said - ever, not even once - that they were bored.

I’d call that a great summer day.

Ever since we started potty training with Braden when he was about 2 1/2, I have gained a new appreciation for the fact that I have two boys. I’ve often wondered when at a park or somewhere without a potty, what do little girls do? With my boys, I can simply tell them to find an out-of-the-way tree and do what they have to do.

I was reminded of the convenience of having boys today when I made a “quick stop” at a nursery on the way home from the park, and in the middle of a discussion I was having with the man working there about the azalea bush I was about to buy, Braden said, “Mommy, I have to go potty,” and started to do his little dance. I asked the man if they had a potty, and he told me to just take Braden back to the trees and “let him do the boy thing.”

Don’t get me wrong. I certainly wouldn’t have complained if I had had a little girl. I’m sure I would have figured it out, but I really do find myself at times like this thinking, “Let’s hear it for the boys.”