If you read part one of this series, it should be pretty clear that we have to be proactive in protecting our children from pornography. Today we’ll look at how we can go about doing that.
Strong Boys: Dangers Online (Part 1)
We had just cleaned a virus off our home computer. Again. In the process of doing so, I noticed the virus was one of those that automatically redirects to obscene sites and popups. I followed the checklist for cleaning it off, but I’m no tech-queen, and I worried that I hadn’t gotten it all.
Building Strong Boys: Avoiding Parental Abandonment
As I read through many accounts of troubled boys, such as those in the book Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them(*affiliate link) by Dr. James Garbarino, there’s a heart-breaking, recurring theme.
Building Strong Boys: Beyond Me, Here, and Now
Advice is never hard to find. Good advice? Well, that may take a little more looking.
Consider, for example, the many suggestions to simply “live in the here and now” and to “do what makes YOU happy”. There are certainly times and circumstances when these little gems are just what the doctor ordered. But as pervasive, overriding guiding principles, we may be well on our way to missing the mark.
Future Orientation
For as much wisdom as there is in the zen-like suggestion to live in the moment, there is something powerful — and necessary — in teaching our children to see beyond that. The term used in academic literature to describe this ability to imagine and value life beyond the hear and now is future orientation. In one study, the review of data from 850 at-risk teens showed a direct correlation between positive future orientation and lower levels of violence in the teenage years. [Read more…]
Building Strong Boys: The Video Game Debate
Video games have come under fire lately as a possible contributing factor in a variety of undesirable behaviors, particularly for boys. Whether it’s examining possible links between real world violence and video games or questioning the connections between gaming and issues of apathy and motivation, many are quick to point a finger at the flashing screens in living rooms all around the world.
Building Strong Boys: The Meaning of Manhood
I’m jumping right in at the deep end with this first topic in the Building Strong Boys Series — The Meaning of Manhood.