This morning, our MOPS director, Jennifer spoke to our group about the differences in parenting boys and girls.
I think the one comment she made that made an impact on me, and that I want to remember for a long time is this...
I am not raising a baby boy - I am raising a man!
Now, my son is only 11 months old, but already I have had conversations with friends about how I realize that one day I will not be "the woman" in his life. My job is to raise him to be a Godly husband and maybe even father one day. It's weird to think of your babies that way...but I think it is good to have the goal in mind at times. As Nathan grows up, I need to be teaching, sooner rather than later, how to be a gentleman, how to treat women, how to control his energy and maybe even temper.
There are certainly very distinct "girl" and "boy" qualities, that for some crazy reason our culture tries to blur together. NO, I want my son to be a Man, and my daughters to be Women.
Jennifer gave a short list of some ways we can be with our boys.
1. Encourage Adventure
2. Provide physical activity
3. Show him respect as a person (age appropriate of course)
4. Encourage a strong relationship with his father.
5. Teach him about Who he is in Christ, and what His roles are to be.
And a short list of ways we can help our girls be girls.
1. Embrace their inner princess (I think every little girl likes to dress up and ask if she looks pretty...but then to also remind her that it is her heart that is even more beautiful than the dress)
2. Help her discover her talents
3. Remind her of Who God says she is
4. Encourage a strong relationship with her daddy
5. Limit Media (check out this short video before of the evolution of a regular looking girl into a super model. THIS is what our children (and us) see. These people we see in magazine and on TV are not real...you can't call what they do "real". We need to limit the amount of exposure our children receive to things like this)
There are so many differences on so many levels of how we need to be raising our sons and daughters in different ways. This was certainly not an all inclusive list...but it gives you a place to start. I have been doing a lot of thinking lately on how I will raise Nicole and Hannah in different ways than how I raise Nathan.
1 comment:
Great post Michele and it couldn't be more true! My girls are still so little, but I already worry about making sure that they are confident and happy with themselves and their appearences. That they value what's good and true, but yet, I don't want them to not appreciate taking time for themselves and looking their best. Thanks for sharing.
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