AIBU to be glad I have 2 boys

[Lazaretto]

The lack of respect towards girls in our society is getting worse. I can't believe sending pics of your breasts is now common place for teenage girls. These images are in the majority of cases expected and then shared amongst peers. How has it come to this? I wouldn't even know how to start protecting any daughters I had. Whereas, I think it's easier to instil respect in women in boys than in girls. Can't believe how much times have changed.

YABU. I take a far, far more dim view of the boys who are presumably putting pressure on girls to share these pictures then betraying their trust by swapping them round than I do of the girls in them, who have obviously not done anything wrong. If your boys are receiving (and sharing! ffs!) these pictures then they are the problem. It's parents' job to teach kids to treat their fellow humans with respect.

I have 2 Preteen DDs.
I have had a great life, with loads of opportunities. And I've no reason to think it will be any different for my DDs.

I do hope they end up with kind and supportive partners (or happily single). Because a bad partner would screw things up for them. But moms of boys will have the same hope for their boys.

I made my share of mistakes during my teenage years, and had a few unpleasant things happen to me. This is going to happen to many teenagers. Girls and boys. The important thing is to be able to pick yourself back up and get on with things.

A good sense of self respect and self worth will go a long way towards keeping our DC on the right track. Both girls and boys.

And to those moms so happy they don't have girls, you may have future DILs. I hope you will be kind to them...

confused that comment was to those who are glad they only have boys.

Only girls was just how it happened for me too. But I would have been equally delighted to have a boy.

''as the mother of sons you are as likely to raise abusers as I am to raise victims of abuse (as the mother of daughters).''

Nodding along to this

If it's so easy to raise boys to have respect for girls, why isn't it happening?

Yabvvvvvu!

You wouldn't know how to protect your daughters (or educate them, instill morals, knowledge, strength of character etc etc)? Really?

Probably best you don't have a daughter really

This thread is so ironic.

Talking about boys lack of respect towards girls then slagging girls of for wearing make up and pampering themselves , oh deary me! I think your attitude would change if you were blessed with a girl

How is it nasty to mention the prevalence of young male suicide? Is it just in case there happens to be someone on the thread who has been touched by the issue? That's just stupid. It's a fact.

fredfred, do you mean anyone without a girl isnt "blessed"?

This is a weird thread.

I have three boys. I'm sometimes glad they're not girls because of the insane levels of threat to girls' sense of self and how retrograde society has become in its expectations for women, challenging of female potential and pornification and commodification of female sexuality.

I worry they ARE boys because of the insane levels of threat to boys' sense of self and how they are conditioned to expect privilege and shout down their wives, sisters and friends, shut down emotionally, not seek help when they're falling apart etc.

I think society does a lot of damage to our kids. It teaches them that some of the worst of stuff is what life is about, they are encouraged to behave in ways that can cause long term harm to their sense of who they are... They both can be victims, girls of bullying and rape, boys of bullying and physical violence (more likely to be mugged/stabbed etc).

And as for this:
More men abuse.. 'so clearly plenty of mothers of sons are not raising their sons well.'

Women responsible as usual, I see? How is male abusiveness a consequence of a WOMAN not raising her child well?

This thread is bizarre. Its a "lets bash boys" thread AND a "girls are bitches" thread. What fun

But the stuff I read about on mn...rape, domestic abuse, struggling single mothers after a man fucks off, problems progressing in the workplace, the difficulty mainly women face between work and childcare

You know the perpetrators of the rape, domestic abuse etc are statistically likely to be male. So your son could be one of the above? A rapist? A domestic abuser? A man who fucks off and leaves his child with a single mum?

It isn't easier to bring up boys. It isn't easier to bring up girls.

I've got one of each and I worry about very different things for both of them.

There is no more worry for one sex than the other.

MN at its worst.

duplodon I used the word mothers because I am conversing here mostly with mothers, but of course you are absolutely right and I stand wholeheartedly corrected.