Raising Well-Mannered Boys - Parenting Etiquette

Raising Well-Mannered Boys — Parenting Etiquette

My question is about parenting etiquette.

How do we raise boys to respect women? I have a hard time being around children, especially disrespectful boys. I’m not saying boys should behave more like girls, I’m asking how to get boys to treat women better?

–Name Withheld

Thank you for your question about parenting etiquette.

Despite the fact that more and more daughters are being told they can be anything they want to be — a mother who is also the CEO of a multi-national corporation or even an astronaut, it’s unclear what signals we’re giving to boys to promote an unbiased society.

When babies and toddlers throw food on the floor or don’t put away their toys and mothers or women caregivers clean up the mess, women perpetuate the message that they are there to clean and tidy up.
However, after a day of work, grocery shopping and getting children ready for bed and school the next day, most of the time it is easier to not make a fuss and we clean up the mess ourselves.

Only when we have more men handling childcare more of the time will this change.

To quote Gloria Steinem, “I’m glad we’ve begun to raise our daughters more like our sons, but it will never work until we raise our sons more like our daughters.”