A couple years ago, my wife and I were spending time with our good friends and their son who had just turned 3 years old. Our friends (the parents) stepped out of the room for a bit, leaving me in my chair working on my computer and my wife interacting with the 3 year old.
The 3 year old boy suddenly started bossing my wife around, being intentionally mean to her. It seemed a switch had been flipped as his parents left (not that his parents could do anything about it – I don’t believe any of this was due to their parenting at all). I let this behavior go on for about 30 seconds before I interrupted and told him not to treat my wife that way. Yes, you heard right. I confronted a 3 year-old about mistreating my wife.
I learned a couple things from this little demonstration.
- Boys don’t naturally respect and care for women – whether the women are young or old.
- Boys need a role model for many things – including someone who treats women well (which this boy does have in his father – and in friends of his father).
- Boys need to be confronted about their wrong behavior – and sometimes it’s best done by a man. Mothers can discipline, but there are some things that a father figure needs to address – including how to treat women well (including their mother).
Mothers – have you had issues with this in your sons? Fathers – have you ever had to confront this issue with any of your sons? What do you think?
Thanks to Trippography for the photo above.
