Why Are Boys Different?

Hi Moms,

Ok - I attended a parenting class entitled "Raising Boys" and being a mom of 2 young boys, I found this educational and would love to hear from you if you have boys:

• Aggressiveness is ok, but violence is not acceptable.
• Males pull away during tragedy and women become nurturing.
• Male brains cannot multi-task; women's brains are more flexible and adaptable.
• Males have 20x more testosterone that females
• Boys even dream aggressively with fighting, chasing, etc. (is that because of the design of their brain or is it because we allow them to watch/play that way?)
• Boys possess less of the seratonine chemical which allows one to become calm
• Males dominate in the drug/alcohol abuse, teret syndrome, and autism diseases

According to this expert, boys need nurturing, discipline, and structure more than girls. She also insists that you can't praise your child too much because society will hurt and knock them down enough so they need the home environment to raise them up.

She also preaches that right from wrong is learned in the home and by age 5 it is almost too late! Give them choices and every house should have 5 golden rules.

Top 5 rules in our home:

1) No hitting, kicking, touching or hurting another person
2) Respect everyone, but especially your parents - never talk back
3) Always tell the truth
4) Everyone that lives in the home, must help to keep the home nice - weekly chores and taking care of your things are for everyone!
5) Manners count - the only way to get what you want is by using manners - please and thank you go along way in our home! :-)

What are the top 5 rules in your home? I would love your comments!

Until next time...

Julie
aka: Mom

Comments

[Hans]

We use all these golden rules at home... or try to enforce them. With 4 children ages 7 and under it's no easy task. First and foremost is rule number one to which I'd add biting.

My three year old has taken to biting his sister when he needs a nuclear option. He bites because he knows it gets instant results . Unfortunately it also leaves teethmarks on his sister and makes his parents extremely angry. Along with this first rule we always end up emphasizing that we expect the kids to 'use their words' instead of their fists (or teeth). Sometimes, if we have the patience, we have the antagonists step through the argument again and make them use words. Hopefully this will eventually sink in... so far results have been mixed. but maybe it's like a marketing message - it has to be repeated 180 times before it's absorbed.