Product Description

In Raising Boys, Steve Biddulph looks at the most important issues in boys' development from birth to manhood - and discusses the warm, strong parenting and guidance that boys need. He brings his humour, honesty and practical knowledge of families to the vital task of raising our sons.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #258 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

BBC Family Life Magazine
`Steve's advice is easy to follow - and more importantly, it works.'

The Guardian
'Britain's number one childcare guru'

Synopsis
This text argues that boys need to be parented in a different way from girls with their own very special psychological and physical make-up. Home, society and education have failed boys badly - and these failures lead to unhappy men who cannot fully become emotionally confident adults. The author, Steve Biddulph, goes on to assert that it is essential that boys spend more time learning about manhood from their fathers. Through the teen years a boy ideally needs a male mentor outside his immediate family to teach him the best way to live. Without these things boys can turn to alcohol, drugs and despair and fail to grow up into feeling, responsible adults. In this text, Biddulph provides advice on: the stages of boyhood; how a mother teaches about life and love; how schools need to change to be made a good place for boys; testosterone and how it changes behaviour; how to be a good father; and how to teach boys to have a caring attitude towards girls and sex.

Customer Reviews

Made me want a daughter!
I felt completely depressed when pregnant with my second son when I read this book! Mr Biddulph basically tells you that, as a mother, you are important to your sons till they reach five, then you can basically forget it, as you will always be of secondary importance to them compared to their fathers and you should just get on with doing their laundry and cooking them the odd meal or two!
I'm sure he is right to a certain degree but, after speaking to many people after reading this, it is a huge generalisation to say that most men worship their fathers and take their mothers for granted.
Also, he could really have written one chapter instead of a whole book as the central message is repeated again and again: "Male children need strong male role models"
Very good, Steve, but this book didn't answer many of my questions or offer me practical advice as a mother of boys and left me wanting to have daughters!
Since tossing it in the recycling bin, I am now loving being mum to two boys and would not change them for anything!

Useful
I have read The Secrets of Happy Children by Biddulph, and found it extremely useful, so having a small boy on my hands decided me to investigate Raising Boys. I was not disappointed.

What I like most about Biddulph is that he is not preachy. He does not try to ram his message down your throat. He presents his case and is very careful to try and give a balanced view. Reading other reviews I note that some readers are critical of his belief that children are best raised at home until the age of three. I send my son to nursery school for one and a half days per week, and I feel that it is appropriate to do so. I have not changed my mind based on what Biddulph says. I feel that he has to tread a thin line between telling us things that he thinks we need to know and understanding that each child is unique and their special needs, whatever they may be should be catered for. On the whole he does this well.

I feel that he also deals compassionately with the issue of what to do if you are a single mother, and provides clear and pragmatic examples of how to look for and use positive male role models.

I think his down to earth approach, particularly his stressing the fact that parenting is not a perfect job, and even with the best will in the world will always be an ongoing learning process between you and your children is the most humane and accepting that I have read and I thoroughly recommend his work. The only reason this got four stars is because it is a little out of date and could do with a reissue with more statistics.

A parent/researcher
Overall, this book is a good contribution to the question of how to parent boys. However, he uses the appearance of research to endorse his personal view that boys are best cared for during the day by family members. In fact, the weight of evidence demonstrates that good quality childcare outside the family is positively beneficial for pre-school children of both genders.
I would challenge Steve Biddulph to produce a revised edition that incorporates real, direct evidence.