All-male offspring? Handle it with flair

It's a different set of challenges, raising only boys.
By MICHAEL MCLEOD
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Four years ago, Dallas homemaker Linda Marie Ford was sitting at the dinner table with her husband and her three children, all males, when one of the boys belched so loudly that the boy next to him laughed so hard that milk came out of his nose.
It was inspiring. It inspired Ford, 41, to invent a Web site.
The site, named, appropriately,itsgoodtobethequeen.com, is devoted to women whose offspring are all male.
"There's a lot of pressure when you're the only one in the household with an estrogen supply," she says.
The site has 2,500 members, who log on to read a weekly message from Ford and share their own stories about living in households preoccupied with video games and bodily functions.
One member recently posed this question: "What would you do if your boy came home with a hole in his body that wasn't there when he left the house?"
Another member offered: "You could tell him what my mother-in-law told my husband on the occasion of his most recent tattoo: 'If I knew you were going to grow up and do this to your body, I wouldn't have worried about diaper rash so much.'"
Helped out with idea
Ford, who refers to all of her members as "queens," got the idea for the Web site's regal theme when one of her sons, steeped in chivalrous language after reading "The Chronicles of Narnia," began answering any request she made by saying: "I hear and obey, my queen."
She liked the sound of it enough to go out and buy herself a tiara.
"I think mothers with all boys deserve a little pampering," she says.
The Web site is a frequent stop for Erin Burtoft, 36, whose three children are all boys: Alex, 13, Jason, 9, and Bryan, 3.
"You get sucked into their world without even knowing it," she says. "The other day, in traffic, I found myself staring at a pickup, thinking, 'Hey, nice truck.' I need a place to go where I don't feel weird admitting that I spend an awful lot of my time explaining things like: 'No.' 'Put that down.' 'Golf is not a game that you play inside the house.'"
Though the Web site helps, there are other ways of seeking refuge from testosterone territory, says Burtoft.
"If there's a just-girls lunch, I'm there," she says. Plus, she has made it a point to develop a bond with a close friend who has twins. Both girls.