.png)
I'm blogging my way through Raising Real Men with The MOB Society. If you missed a post in the series, head to the Raising Real Men Introduction to catch up. Today, I'm in chapter 2 and 3.
Chapter 2 and 3
- Boys need to have the freedom to take reasonable risks. pg. 51
- Teach your sons to take good risks, reasonable, godly risks. pg. 55
- give the boys are much responsibility as they could handle as soon as they were able and give them more as they show themselves faithful. pg. 59
Our society keeps raising the age of maturity and responsibility. At one time, age 13 was thought to be the age of adulthood. Then 16. Then 18. Then 21. Oh, wait, maybe once you complete college? 25? 30? Now we have 40 year olds living at home and mooching off their mommas. What is wrong with us? When is a boy considered an adult?
What we've really done is set our boys up for failure. We need to slowly give them responsibility and teach how to use “common” sense while we can be the guard rails keeping them from catastrophic failure. We as parents should be showing our boys how to learn from their mistakes and widening those guard rails as they grow and mature.
My boys are still fairly young; Jonathan just recently turned 5. Even though he's little, he can already do things like take a gift card or cash and order food in a small cafe like Starbucks. He can order his own meal in a restaurant. He rides his bike unsupervised on our street within established boundaries. Baby steps to maturity and responsibility.
Let's talk! What do you think about the age of maturity in our society? How are you slowly giving your boys opportunities to learn responsibility and exercise common sense? Share your thoughts in the comments.
