Saturday, February 6, 2010

Decent Young Men

In response to this weekend's column Angry Young Men, I received the following charming email from a mother of six, including three boys. Thank God for responsible women like this!

(reprinted with permission) [NOTE: I've added an addendum at the bottom.]
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Hello Patrice,

Thank you for your article today. As a regular reader of your articles, I have yet to disagree with your “common sense” opinions. Today, though, I felt particularly compelled to set aside a little time to write you and tell you that, although you’re not raising sons of your own, you’ve hit the nail on the head.

Society as a whole has been robbing boys of their masculinity and duties as men for decades. Liberal feminism has succeeded in blurring the gender lines between men and women. It grieves me to say that we are, and have been, witnessing the devastating consequences of the absence of strong fathers in the home who are willing and able to train the next generation of boys to be responsible, accountable, functional, productive members of society.

As a mother of three boys (soon to be 10, 9, 5) and 3 girls (3, 2, 5 mo.), I am entering into a phase of parenting where my older boys have to come out from under my wing and need to be turned over to their father for training. More often than not, I find myself covering my eyes and cringing at some of the “fun” things my husband has in mind for things for them to do. But you’re right, they need that! They love the challenges. As a matter of fact, they welcome them, eager to put their “man skills” to the test. Their scrapes, cuts, and bruises are revered as badges of “man” honor, and I’ve often heard them comparing whose injury was more severe!

Today’s liberally trained moms have no idea what they’re missing or what they’re doing to their boys when they neglect their sons’ need for a sound father figure. I love my boys and am so proud of them for being just that, BOYS. And I’m also so thankful for a husband who eagerly meets the needs of his children recognizing it’s his responsibility to train his sons. Our sons have some big shoes to fill and an important role to play. Hopefully, with a whole lot of prayer, grace, training, and patience, they will be strong enough to help carry our society through these uncertain times. I wish every young boy were so fortunate.

Thanks again for the read and keep up the good work!

Robin
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Just a side note: last winter we ran low on firewood and needed to buy a cord, so we called someone who had posted a flyer on the grocery store bulletin board. The wood seller came to deliver the rounds of wood with his ten-year-old son in tow. Wanting to show off his manly skills in front of our daughters, the boy climbed up the load of wood and joined his father in tossing (heaving, more like it) the rounds into a pile in our driveway. The father was a cheerful hardworking man who sold wood to supplement his income. His son was right there learning skills and a work ethic along with his dad. It warmed my heart.

5 comments:

  1. Excellant post. May I add that my daughter received the same treatment from me as my son. She now can hunt, fish, camp, and hold her own. My son can cook, do laundry, and clean. We were a well rounded family. My son is and always will be a man, and my daughter is and always will be a woman. I'm old school. Was married to the same woman for 43 years until she passed. Family was always number one.

    See Ya

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  2. Ain't 'showin' off' for girls a "manly skill?"

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  3. LOL, jselvy.... It seems to be instinctive for boys to want to show off in front of girls. Had my daughters not been present to watch the wood getting tossed from the back of the pickup truck, I strongly suspect the boy would not have been working quite as enthusiastically.

    - Patrice

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  4. Al Mohler has addressed this same issue on his blog this week here and also on his radio program.

    www.albertmohler.com

    Although I've never commented on your blog before, I'm an avid fan of your World Net Daily articles. We homeschool 2 boys and appreciate your view as we share the same ideals. We've specifically joined a cub scout pack for homeschoolers that only allows men to be den leaders. Scouts is a great place for boys to learn from God-fearing men. But many cub scout packs have allowed too much female leadership in my opinion. In my opinion, this is another area in which women need to take a lesser role. In our pack, women do the "organization type positions" which are behind the scenes in the pack and Dads take the roles in directly leading the boys. Thanks for your articles. I read them every weekend.

    Brenda

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