As a father to sons, you are likely to feel that it’s necessary to try and do all you can to give them the best start in life, and a big part of that will always be about what to teach them. This is something that fathers usually care about a lot, but what exactly are some of the things you should be teaching your sons? This is of course entirely up to you, but in this post we’ll look at some examples of the kinds of things you might want to consider here. You might find these to be well worth focusing on.
To Be Emotionally Literate
Gone are the days when men were supposed to be emotionless. These days, it’s generally recognized as important that men are able to understand their feelings, and that they are essentially more emotionally literate. To that end, you may want to teach your sons to name what they are feeling when they’re feeling it, and to be honest and upfront about that. Starting them off right with this is going to be one of the best things you ever do for them, so it’s well worth thinking about and putting the work into it.
Where Confidence Really Comes From
Boys will always want to be confident, and their fathers will all have ideas about what this means and how to make it a reality. If you are keen to help your son with this, it may be helpful to gently explain the kinds of places where true confidence cannot be found. After all, who cares about penis size? Who cares how muscular you are? These are not the things that lead to confidence, and you might want to remind your sons of this as often as necessary to help them develop truly.
Accountability Over Perfection
Try to avoid raising boys who are afraid to mess up. That’s just not a great approach. Instead, aim to teach them the importance of accountability. This is much more noble and important than perfection, and it’s something that you should certainly make sure you are trying to keep in mind when you are teaching them. What matters in messing up is that you own it, apologize and learn from it, before trying again. This is the best thing to teach your child if you want to make sure they know how to behave with other people.
How To Handle Power
If your son happens to grow up to be powerful – rich, strong, successful and so on – then that’s good. But if they don’t know what to do with that power, it could be very dangerous for the people around them – and for themselves. It’s therefore really important that you teach them how to handle power, and what that means, so that they remain respectful of others and use their power for good. If you can make sure of that, it’s one of the most important things you can possibly do for them.
