Just wondering, and please know that I'm asking this rhetorically, which means I assume the answer is no: has it been your intention ever since your boy was in the womb that you were raising him to grow up to be a woman?@The Revolting Man is pointing to the
necessity to expose your sons to the moderately dangerous so they can gain practice dealing with the world
as it is, which is dangerous. It's tough. It's broken. Its machines break down -- and need to be fixed, typically with at least some risk of permanent damage to life and limb.
It's a mother's job to nurture and protect her children, but it can be taken too far, and one of the worst ways to take it too far is to prevent one's sons from being fully prepared to be men. In general, men have done such a good job of being men that women are permitted to be oblivious of what it took to make life seem so idyllic. I'm not saying that it seems idyllic to you,
@ginger2, or that the next thing I'll write is unfamiliar to you, either, but men create, organize and provide the vast majority of the structure, protection, guidance and sacrifice that keeps the world women depend on in working order. Men who learn to enjoy the moderately dangerous are monumentally more likely to become part of the cohort that sustains that working order, instead of growing up to be girly boys. They are also more likely to live robust, long lives instead of being taken out along the way by the very real dangers that they weren't given practice handling. Sons also have self-preservation instincts. I'm not -- and I know
@The Revolting Man is not -- suggesting that you send your son out into traffic on an Interstate highway to play a game of hopscotch. He's suggesting that you provide him with an opportunity to experience just enough danger that his senses will be on high enough alert that he can enjoy the thrill of being on the edge and yet still be engaged in ensuring that he survives in order to tackle one after another of the successive dangers he will face in life.
