What is it with boys?

Yesterday on our long car trip to the zoo, in our van without - gasp- a DVD player, we played a few games. One of the games that Strider really wanted to do is the one where one person starts a story and then they "pass" it to someone else who makes up the next part of it, etc.

Pete said he would play along- - but only if Strider would not make it all violent. So Strider agreed and he started the story:

"Once upon a time there was a man named Joe. And Joe was addicted to drugs."

"NO, no, no!" I interrupted.

"Alright," Strider said. "Joe was addicted to Webkinz, ok? Anyway, he loved Webkinz so much that he played the games all day everyday for 5 years. One day a man came and told Joe that Webkinz was shutting down." And at that point he passed the story on to me.

While it was my turn, and Pete's turn, we tried to turn the story in a more positive direction, trying to use it as a "learning opportunity" (we were headed to a Field Trip, after all). So my chapter included a part of Joe's life in which he realized that true joy came from helping other people, so he served at a soup kitchen for years. And Pete's portion had Joe starting after-school tutoring program for underprivileged kids, etc.

Later, though, when Strider regained control of the story, he announced that "Joe found out that Webkinz was now available again, so he started playing for a year non-stop...."

This verbal tug-of-war went on for awhile...

Then at one point Pete had the story and he talked about how Joe realized that his pet dog Bob (who had been previously introduced into the story by Rayna) was very smart, so Joe had him trained to be a seeing-eye dog and gave him to a blind woman named Betty.

Now it was Strider's turn again. So he began,

"One day, Bob took Betty for a walk and he saw a squirrel. So he chased the squirrel, and Betty ran into a tree, and then fell into a hole...."

What is the deal with boys? (Not all boys, I know... but apparently the ones I'm raising anyway) Despite our best efforts to teach love, kindness and all other virtues, and to shield our kids from violence, evil (and drug addictions for crying out loud!) and all other bad things.... Still, this is what pours forth from the mind of my boy!