Raising Your Sons to be Honourable Men
Raising boys to become honourable men is not an easy job. My youngest son will be 21 in a few months. And he has been going on dates. So I want him to be an honorable man. Someone who has integrity, someone who keeps his word. someone who treats women with respect, someone who is reliable, kind, honest and respectful and a good citizen of the world. And above all someone that loves God!
So how do we raise our young boys to become honourable men in the future, I’m glad you ask because that’s what our post for today is all about.
As a mom of four, (one woman and three men), the one thing I’ve learned about parenting is that boys are very different. Boys (at least most boys I know) are tougher to teach, tougher to communicate with, and they’re tougher to get through to than girls. And, the challenges boys face in life are oftentimes far different than the challenges girls face.
I also realise that society expects boys (to act strong, tough and unbreakable even when they’re not),
My son thinks he knows everything but as his mom I still need to keep empowering him with a few valuable skills and some good old wisdom that hold the power to make him far more content and ready to manage life in workplace and beyond.
Dear parents, the values that your little boy learns in his childhood will shape his personality and determine the man he grows up to be.
As a parent, it is your responsibility to instill in your son these values that would help in raising your son to be a good man.
Here are a few things I’m still teaching my son (lessons I feel every boy should learn) before he leaves my care
- EXPRESS EMOTIONS:
We need to teach our boys that it’s okay to express their feelings and that doing so is a strength not a weakness.
Let him show his sensitive side. Let him shed a tear if life gets the best of him.
Crying is only for girls”, “Take it like a man”, “Big boys don’t cry”, are some of the phrases boys often hear while growing up. As a result, most men never feel comfortable expressing their emotions. Withholding emotions can lead to serious problems later, such as the inability to build and sustain meaningful personal and work relationships. Therefore, develop emotional literacy in your boy and teach him that a man’s real strength comes from accepting and expressing his emotions, not from repressing them.
- How to Live with Honor
The beauty of living with honor isn’t necessarily in how others will view your son, but how he will view himself as he journeys into adulthood. Set him on a positive, honorable path by developing a core set of family beliefs he can live his life by.
Dear parents, let’s be a positive role model for them and strive to instill values of integrity, morality, loyalty, reliability and responsibility.
Being honorable yourself, surrounding your son with honorable men and women.
- TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR ACTIONS:: A good man is quick to admit when he is wrong and face the consequences of his actions. So, teach your son to think before he acts. And if things go wrong, to accept the responsibility and try to set the situation right. Also, make him understand that blaming others for his mishaps isn’t the right thing to do.
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
Raising honorable men should be our goal as parents. Please dear parents remember children are not born with these values they need to be taught to them.
Let’s stop assuming that our children should know what to do, especially teens. I have come to realize that none of us are born with any of these skills and it’s not necessarily a skill you’ll pick up along the way in life. All these skills needs to be taught.
That’s it for now, I will be sharing the concluding part next time.
Please feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below 👇
Positive Parenting With Olu 