Several years ago, I was friends with a young mother. My own kids were about 8 and 10 and her son was about one.
She was a neighbor who’d come visit with me for parenting advice and one thing that I stressed was that boys and girls were different.
I told her to watch her son on walks. Before he turned two, he’d be finding sticks to carry and swing about. Girls rarely did this.
I remember when he was about a year and a half old she called me excitedly yelling, “He found a stick! He found his first stick!! I mean he made a bee-line for it! That was amazing!”
I assured her that her son was very advanced for his age. ;-)
It’s pure instinct and I’ve never known a boy who didn’t do this. Sometimes girls will, but boys are positively driven.
Sadly, I’ve known plenty of mothers who shout, “Put that down!” They don’t understand that this is a natural thing for little boys to do.
Hear! Hear! Great wisdom.