Raising our boys

How to help your sons and grandsons navigate adolescence

- Gabriella Del Grande

There are countless emotions, issues and experiences boys can encounter on their journey from childhood through to adolescence and then on to adulthood – and they differ from person to person.

But there’s one common stigma that the majority of our boys will deal with and that’s vulnerability.

“I have certainly found that young blokes are trying to live up to a stereotype that isn’t manageable,” says mental health expert Gus Worland. “There is a stigmatism of handling things yourself and not being a sook – man up, shut up.”

Youth worker Hunter Johnson agrees. “After working with more than 20,000 teenage boys, what we’ve seen first-hand is that they are desperate to expand their masculinity and emotional range. So that some days they can be stoic and strong, and the next they can be courageously vulnerable and ask for help when required.”

LEND AN EAR

So how can we teach our boys, from the moment they can walk, talk and express their emotions, to support them and their emotional development?