Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Smith:
Hal Young, father of six boys and author of the book Raising Real Men, joins me again today to wrap up our discussion of raising boys. Hal, let’s jump ahead in the process. Do you have tips for how parents of sons can define and even celebrate their transition to manhood?

Hal Young:
Mike, we need to remember that history doesn’t show us a 10-year no man’s land that we call adolescence. There are children, and there are adults. Now the Apostle Paul said there’s a time to put away childish things. So what we do is set a time—we chose their 13th birthday—to say, “Son, here’s your stepping off point for manhood.” And from that time on, we try to work with our sons as adults in training. It’s kind of an apprenticeship for independence.

Think about how we teach kids to drive: do we give them car keys on their 16th birthday and say, “Congratulations!”? No, we give them classes, we teach them rules, and then we take them under our arm and show them how to drive, step by step. You can approach a lot of adult life that way. And then when they make mistakes, whether it’s driving a car, or balancing a checkbook, or applying for a job, they tend to be small mistakes, and we can help them recover, and teach them how to avoid problems in the future.

Mike:
Hal, it’s truly been a blessing to have you and Melanie on the program with us this week. Thank you for your great work in helping parents raise godly and manly sons! And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.