At Focus on the Family, we frequently hear from moms who want to parent their young sons well but who struggle to understand how to raise a good and godly young man out of a young boy who is loud, messy, and full of energy.
If you’re a mom asking that question, I encourage you to listen to my conversation with author Molly DeFrank on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. We discussed 8 ideas that she says every mom of boys should focus on in her parenting.
• Belonging – Boys have a critical need to belong to something greater than themselves.
• Relationship – How to take advantage of opportunities to strengthen your bond with your sons and equip them for high quality relationships with others.
• Authority – How to teach boys to respect authority and love and obey God.
• Fun – Boys like to have fun, but too much can be detrimental. It can turn them inward and promote addiction to digital entertainment.
• Bravery – Boys develop perseverance and grit through hard work in which they experience risk, adversity, failure, and success.
• Tenderness – Your goal, mom, is to raise strong boys with soft hearts.
• Creativity – How to awaken a boy to the real world when, on average, 8-year-olds spend 5.5 hours per day consuming digital entertainment.
• Emotional Durability – How to help your sons understand, voice, and process their emotions in healthy ways.
Young boys can be rambunctious, but they can also be thoughtful and ask great questions. In a world that confronts boys with false messages about strength and masculinity, you play a crucial role, mom, in raising boys with the character to pursue what’s most important in life.
While you’re online, why not try our free parenting assessment? It will quickly give you an overview of how your family is doing in several key areas. It also offers suggestions for improving the relationships in your home.