I DO think there is a place for attitude. I just don't want him to be that way all the time. I do think there is a tough guy in him and I want him to be able to express it as well as the sweet sensitive guy. Both of them are part of DS's real self. In our family, it is about context and control. That means he gets to experiment with different personas and learn how to manage them all. Sometimes that means making mistakes and dealing with consequences.
We don't have cable and DS hardly watches any TV (maybe an hour a week), so DS only gets Nick at his grandparents' house and Cartoon Network (in Spanish) when we are in Central America. His friends are mostly very nice and each set seems to bring out a slightly different part of him, but boy-play can be rough physcically and emotionally.
I highly recommend a book called Raising Cain:Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys by Kindlon and Thompson. It really helped me understand my brothers, husband, and now my son.
