Raising Boys Quotes

Fathers have a lot to do to make up for having sons.

For a mother the project of raising a boy is the most fulfilling project she can hope for. She can watch him, as a child, play the games she was not allowed to play; she can invest in him her ideas, aspirations, ambitions, and values - or whatever she has left of them; she can watch her son, who came from her flesh and whose life was sustained by her work and devotion, embody her in the world. So while the project of raising a boy is fraught with ambivalence and leads inevitably to bitterness, it is the only project that allows a woman to be - to be through her son, to live through her son.

Here's what I've learned about raising boys... if you keep 'em busy, they're fine. You let 'em get bored, they'll dismantle your house board by board.

There's so much testosterone when you raise three boys, so much energy ... I don't think as a parent you're meant to control them, you're meant to guide them. Especially with their dynamic personalities, that's the challenge and that's half the fun - trying to keep them on the tracks.

Boys are like puppies, but the thing I find terrifying is how do you steer them?

And if it's a boy, I will be really nervous because I have no idea what to do with a boy because I am a girl and I have a girl!

Growing up raising three boys on your own is either gonna make you strong or make you crazy. It definitely made my mom strong.

For a mother the project of raising a boy is the most fulfilling project she can hope for.

When winter fails to provide an adequate snow base, my boys bring their sleds in the house and ride them down the stairs. Just the other day, my wife found them with a rope out their second-story bedroom window, preparing to rappel down the side of the house. The recipe for fun is pretty simple raising boys: Add to any activity an element of danger, stir in a little exploration, add a dash of destruction, and you've got yourself a winner.

Barking hard work, being a boy.

Boys are easy. I mean, there are just a lot of bruises when they're young. With boys, you get a lot of accidental jabs in the eye and stepping on your feet, and those tantrums they cause when they don't want to leave the toy store.

My faith experience, well, as you can imagine, you need a lot of faith to raise five boys.

I feel excited in that I think boys born to feminists have a leg up. At least, the ones I've met seem like they do. There's something really vital about that exchange. I think I'd only imagined, beforehand, handing down a feminism to a young girl. But I'm newly excited by the challenge of raising a boy.

With boys, you always know where you stand. Right in the path of a hurricane.

Mom used to say that having three boys was kind of like having a pet tornado that talked back.