NYM Ministries: The unique challenge of raising boys (from Today's Native Father #112)

NYM Ministries
Family Life Resources•Newsletter

	Subscribe to receive Today's Native Father with all its features FREE, \| Articles Index \| Read current issue of TNF \|
PRODUCT/RESOURCES INDEX Today's Native Father Archive of Articles Free booklets Marriage/Parenting Tip Calendar of workshops E-mail questions or comments	This article is from Today's Native Father, issue #112, November/December, 2000. Related articles from this issue: Raising boys: not the same as raising girls Life skills for boys Honouring our daughters
	The Unique Challenge of Raising Boys Review by David Hertzler
	"Society's rules for being a man have changed," say Gary and Carrie Oliver in their book Raising Sons and Loving It (Zondervan Publishing House, 2000). “No longer marked by clear roles of provider, protector and procreator, manhood today suffers from contradictory messages about just what it is that makes a man.” The authors list the following male-specific inequities, inferiorities and wounds that describe the world in which we are raising our boys: Infant boys receive fewer demonstrative acts of affection from their mothers and are touched less than infant girls. Boys are talked to less often and for shorter durations than girls. When a child complains of a minor injury, parents are quicker to comfort girls than boys. Men have a 600% higher incidence of work-related accidents, and men die from work-related injuries about 20 to 1 over women. Boys are much more likely to suffer from a variety of birth defects. About 200 genetic diseases affect only boys, including the most severe forms of muscular dystrophy and hemophilia. Young boys are admitted to mental hospitals and juvenile institutions about seven times more frequently than girls of similar age and socioeconomic background. Because boys are considered by most people to be emotionally tougher than girls, they are more often reprimanded in public for misbehavior, whereas girls are more likely to be taken aside and spoken to more softly. While government compiles many statistics on the needs of working mothers, few statistics are kept on behalf of fathers, including the special needs of the millions of men who are single parents. Suicide rates are about four times higher for men than women. Men’s life expectancy is as much as nine years less than women’s. Ninety-nine percent of the prisoners on death row are males. Quotes © 2000 by Gary and Carrie Oliver. Used by permission. Ask your bookstore for Raising Sons and Loving It. Other topics addressed in this book are: “Helping Your Son Cultivate Healthy Anger”; “What Boys Need from Their Dad”; “Responding to Emotions Your Son Evokes in You.”