Raising Boys With Respect, Honor and Love
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about raising boys with respect, both mine toward them and theirs toward everyone else and themselves. I’ve been thinking about it, partly, because I know someone who is coming to terms with having a boy instead of the girl she really wanted. I will admit that I fully expected to have daughters, and was surprised when I didn’t. With Nicholas, I was surprised because all the kids that my generation were having were girls, so I expected him to be a girl. With Tobin, William and I had just completely convinced ourselves that we were having a girl. I mean, who needs science when you have conviction?
I wanted to raise girls who were self sufficient, who had male friends, who had female friends, and who didn’t “need” to be attached romantically to feel complete. I wanted to raise girls who knew their self worth but weren’t conceited, who knew how to have fun without being dumb, who knew how to help other people be comfortable. I wanted to raise girls with a good body image, or at least make it through their teen lives without being completely convinced they were whales even if they were fit. I wanted to raise girls who were kind without being doormats. I wanted to raise girls who knew their own minds, but never stopped learning.
And then the sonographer said my baby had a penis. And I went, “Huh.” And then, sometime during the pregnancy, it happened! I had the most obvious “a-ha” moment ever. All those things I wanted to help my girls learn? I should teach those exact things to my boy. Because they are just as likely to need those lessons as girls are. Sometimes, I think I need to teach them those qualities so that they will be good boyfriends, husbands and fathers. While that is true, I think if I can manage to teach them those qualities, and they are happy men, then they will be good to women by default. And they will be good to other men, and to themselves.
The hard part is raising them in a way that helps to do all those things.
What do you do to teach your kids the big things like honor, integrity, and empathy? What did your parents do to teach you?
As a friend used to say, the store can’t sell what the store doesn’t stock.
If you want your kids to have honor, integrity, empathy, then you have to have those, too, and model those qualities.
The good news is, kids will learn the real values you prize.
The bad news is… kids will learn the real values you prize, not the ones you think you prize.
K~I agree, 100%! And I feel like they get solid doses of those qualities at home. But, like everybody, I have to work on those every day. I suppose that’s something important for them to learn as well, that you keep trying to improve and never stop working on yourself.
Thanks for stopping by!
I hope my boys and my girls are all of those things, too! It’s hard no matter if you have boys or girls. Most things, honestly, aren’t all that different.
Bridget~I think that was part of my ah-ha moment, knowing that I would be doing the same thing for either gender.
This brought tears of pride to my eyes. I am so proud of the mother you are to our grandson’s. I trust you with two of the most precious gifts I have ever received from you. I know that they will always be taught with just the right amount of love and kindness. Thank you for being one of the best gift I ever had. Love you. Momma
Thanks Mom 🙂
This is something I think about a lot. With 2 boys and 2 girls, I am teaching them to respectful of each other and themselves. I don’t think gender plays a huge role for me. When I was young boys were not supposed to hit girls, but girls didn’t have such rules. In my house, boys don’t hit girls and girls don’t hit boys. There is not a double standard there and it prevents so many fights and hurt feelings. It also increases the empathy they have for each other.
Oh, the double standard thing always drove me crazy with my friends who had brothers.