I couldn’t love the title of this article more: Raising boys with a broader definition of masculinity. After all, it’s about something I talk about, often to anyone who will listen — our boys and men are confined to too narrow of a gender role.
Julie Beck says it perfectly: “In recent years, some of society’s gender norms have begun to stretch and soften, while others cling fast. For many young boys, there continues to be a very small space that they can occupy to be considered traditionally ‘masculine,’ and that small space can be restricting, forcing boys to lose what doesn’t fit inside it.”
I’ve written in the past about Michael Reichert, renowned psychologist and author of How to Raise a Boy, who calls this narrow space the “man box.” Beck interviews Reichert, about how adults can strengthen relationships with boys and help them “create a broader expression of masculinity for themselves.” Check out the article, linked above, for the interview’s transcript.
A fun way to help kids ditch the narrow box:
whatsaboymom 