Mum of girls (Caitlin Moran) telling us mums of boys how to speak to our sons

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Thanks 🤔

Or the vast majority of us (including yourself I presume) are doing a perfectly fine job of raising teen boys and don't need someone who has never raised one to step in and tell us she knows best.

Will be a cold day in hell before I take advice from CM. She used to be mildly amusing, but has been deeply tedious and narcissistic for quite a while.

I have a girl and a boy, btw.

As a mum of 5 boys and 3 girls I feel similar, the whole messaging around Adolescence has been very anti boy, reign in your sons before it's too late, boys are a dangerous species etc. Yes some boys will go on to commit terrible acts but most don't, I've found them easier in some ways as teenagers

I think the question we're all missing here is this. Has she told us how many times she had a wank whilst writing her wisdom?

It's funny because, if a boy mum has an opinion on how girls are raised it's a different matter 😊

She said that she’s done a lot of research for her book on men and these are some tips she’s pulled from that. As a mum of boys I’m not at all affronted. If people want to write down bits of parenting advice, people can choose to read it or not, and then decide if they agree with it or not. It’s really not something I can get riled up about.

A saying I once remember hearing...
Our sons should be raised as gentleman and our Daughters to expect no less...
I liked that advice.

Alas though, I've seen some girls that had my DS of been single i'd not want them introduced to....not all are sugar and spice.

I feel like girls behaviour is becoming increasingly worse also. Had a few instances where I live of horrific bullying. But it sometimes comes accross like girls can do no wrong.

I don't disagree with the point's raised in Adolescence but it's not an accurate repusentation of the teenage boys in general.

My mumsnet banner is jet2 holidays 🤣

She's a cowardly, self-promoting, cool girl handmaiden. She can fuck off.

As the mother of both sons and daughters, I very much use my daughters' experiences to inform how I talk to my sons, never having been one myself.

YABU.

(Don't know who Caitlin Moran is, just addressing your actual point).

I like Caitlin Moran. Why can’t she give advice? Never a day goes by without mums of girls starting threads re parenting boys.

I have boys and a girl but I’m old enough to know that plenty of mums of girls (or even childless women) may spend time with boys too eg nephews, neighbours, boyfriends of daughters… I don’t think it’s insulting to ask a mum of girls to comment on what they think boys should be hearing. I don’t know what my sons are like at school and away from home where as these daughters may know a different side to my sons

I have no interest in the musings of newspaper columnists. They are paid to rage bait to raise their own and the newspaper’s profile. I’m not going to read the post in question either because I’m not bothered what a random famous person has to say and nor should you

I thought that too op, I’ve 4 boys and wouldn’t have give advice to parents of girls because I’ve no idea how girls speak to their parents, interact with them etc. we once took our niece for a night and it was such a different kettle of fish!

Ps for anyone who hasn’t read the article she doesn’t seem to be coming at it from a mother of girls direction, she’s saying this is how we should talk to boys

Would you welcome mothers of only boys offering advice on raising girls?

I don’t think I would.

Just a bit of honest self reflection

so much this

Do better MN

Me too … she’s fab.

Yeah
To be fair, anyone who thinks a woman can have a penis would not be someone I would look to for advice on anything. Especially raising children.

Agree, OP.

She was very over-exposed and over-rated for way too long. Maybe this is her attempt to diversify but it’s tone deaf of Mumsnet.

Are you upset purely because she is not the mother of boys?
It all reads as very standard advice on how to talk to teenagers and get them to actually communicate.

are you upset at the insinuation that there is a problem with many young teenage boys and how they treat girls?
guess what. As the mother of a girl I can tell you that there absolutely is a problem. It isn’t a particularly new problem. That doesn’t matter. It needs to stop. It’s 2025. It shouldn’t still be happening. Parents of those boys need to do better.

Aw really ?? I like her. She’s bright intelligent witty and self made… and piercingly observant - cracks me up.

quite a brutal opinion.. do you know her? Has she personally hurt you in some way?

Wait, what? Mumsnet deactivated your account because you posted negatively about an article they paid someone to write?

That really not how it works round here.

You pay Mumsnet the £ (or hand over your data) and share some advice for free.