Whether you have one son or 12, this book will help you understand boys a little more. Raising Real Men : Surviving, Teaching and Appreciating Boys is written by Hal and Melanie Young, parents of 6 boys and 2 girls. They take an unabashedly Christian take on raising boys into men for God.
Their own real life experiences flesh out what they are sharing. This makes it more credible than books put forth by experts who have merely studied statitistics with a few case studies thrown in. The book’s friendly and humourous tone will engage your attention immediately.
I personally feel that children today are molly coddled way to much, be it boys or girls. Probaly due to the fact that most families have only one or 2 children only and a live-in helper to boot. I once blogged about children and chores after reading an article featured in the Sunday Times where getting yourself a cup of drink is considered a chore 
I feel that all this pampering has a more detrimental effect on boys than girls. Where will the real men of society be found? They can’t even do basic chores and we are expecting them to lead their families and our country?
Anyhow, Raising Real Men first explains that boys are well, boys. They are different from girls on so many levels. And admittedly, I think we moms tend not to appreciate this:)
I onlyhave 2 boys out of the 7 children the good Lord has blessed us with but all that activity (jumping/climbing/wrestling) and noise just gets to me at times, especially now when I am very sleep deprived. But as the authors remind me, boys are made that way by God. I just need to learn how to channel all that energy and noise to something productive. As they say, “The focus must be on leading our sons into godly manhood, not just trying to manage them to make our lives convenient and pleasant.”
They also remind me that because boys are always on a lookout for heros to emulate, I need to be careful who they are watching and learning from! This includes friends they make, tv they watch, computer games they play and books they read.
What I like best is the section “Who’s In Charge Here?” and “His Own Man Now” where they speak at length about encouraging leadership in our boys. Encourage them to be leaders, not followers - they need to be groomed to lead their families one day even if they never get to be a CEO of a large MNC or GLC. “God made boys – all of them – to be leaders.” Hence the occasional (regular?!) challenge to mom’s authority. But they need to also understand submission to authority and how the chain of authorityworks. They also need to learn that mom is acting on dad’s behalf (as head of the house) and dad is acting on behalf of God.
And one skill they need to learn in order to be good leaders of their families is to be a good provider. Therefore, teaching important life skills such how to handle money and developing diligence and dependability is another topic Hal and Melanie touch on. They share how they encouraged their sons to be entrepreneurial and hardworking to contribute to the family’s needs.
Raising Real Men is a good read. I highly recommend it to those with boys. I have learnt much from it!
The book itself is available only in January 2010 but you can preorder it now. Or if you don’t want to wait, you can download it as an eBook – like I did and on top of that, save on shipping! More details can be found on their Raising Real Men website. And if you click on their Preorders tab, you’ll see that there are some free bonuses there if you preorder now. I don’t know how long this link lasts though.
Happy Reading!
Baby is almost 6 months and I am still using it. I ordered 2 in colours that would match most of my outfits 
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