“…So don’t do it like me….I see you tryna do it like me…. Man that shit was ugly….”

This is the song that popped into my head while listening to McKinnley and Bailee play a video game recently. I was actually waiting for McKinnley to bust into song, seeing how he does that often. However, he was more focused on the game at hand and how his little sister was narrowing in on his score.

So he did his best to psyche her out.

“You can’t grind like me, you tried but failed,” “You missed that now you’ll never catch my score,” “Man, you’re really bad at this,” “You should give it up now,” “It’s okay to quit ya know,” etc., etc., etc.

Bailee did not give up. Nothing would please her more than to beat her older brother at a skate game. Not only could she rub it in his face at any time she felt necessary, she would have beaten him at his own game so to speak. See the boy wonder got a board for his birthday (much to the girls dismay because they didn’t get one- I foresee Christmas presents this year) and has since thought he was Ryan Sheckler or something.

These two couldn’t be more different in their playing “styles” if you will. Bailee is quiet and focused on the goal at hand. That goal of course is to beat her opponent which just so happened to be her older brother. She doesn’t like talking much or anyone talking to her while she’s playing because it distracts her from her game. While watching the other, she does at times talk trash (who doesn’t?!) and laughs at the flub ups. She is not a sore loser however. She can handle being defeated, but will demand a rematch in which she will “take you down;” all done while batting her eyelashes and flashing a smile (I have taught her well!).

McKinnley on the other hand will talk during his game play; tell you what he’s going to do and how he’s going to do it. He doesn’t mind the questions from onlookers as long as they are held at the most dire segments in a game. He is also a very determined yet dirty player. He will win at all costs; he will lie, cheat and steal his way to the top. When he watches someone play a game he does all he can to make you lose focus; more trash talk than his uncle (who is a hardcore gamer & in the picture with the 2 taken almost 3 yrs. ago), he takes jeers and jabs at your skill level. His ‘know-it-all’ attitude is taken to a WHOLE new level; one that makes you wanna smack him silly. He IS a sore loser and it usually ends with the games being taken away.

I have come to believe that this is simply encoded into him as a male. The ubber competitive side that comes out of him is just short of obnoxious. My ‘research’ was short & sloppy in coming to this conclusion: his father and uncle are both like this when playing anything. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a video game or an actual sport such as basketball. Neither of which the kids are around for due to the extreme foul mouthed, aggressive boys they turn into. I’m calling it a testosterone overload, one that is so great it completely clouds the brain of anything else but the words “MUST WIN.”

I’m assuming all boys are doomed from conception because somewhere inside at some point, the obnoxious, competitive testosterone monster will rear its ugly head and turn your sweet little Mama’s boy into this hideous beast.