My husband and I have 3 daughters and one son. When I was still pregnant with our son, I wondered what a baby boy will look like. I imagined that a baby is a baby is a baby. I mistakenly thought that a baby boy and a baby girl won’t have that much of a difference in their bodies except for their genitals.

When I carried my baby son, Flash Boy, for the first time, the very first thing that I noticed about him were his hands. His hands were much larger than the hands of his baby sisters. Next I noticed that his arms were larger, so were his legs and feet. Oh! Even as babies, girls and boys are very different. The weeks after giving birth and on proved more differences. He was very, very active, turning around much earlier than his sisters. It’s as if he couldn’t wait to get moving around and exploring the world around him.

Having raised three girls, I thought my experience with them would be a big help with him. Most of it were but some of my mothering styles were not working with Flash Boy. I had so many questions because he was very different from his three sisters. Second daughter Artsy Princess is a very excitable child, but hubby and I always say, that Flash Boy is 100 times more excitable and active than Artsy Princess.

A lot of my questions about raising up boys have been answered in Raising Real Men – Surviving, Teaching and Appreciating Boys, a very handy book written by parents of six boys and two girls, Hal and Melanie Young. I cannot help but appreciate the way that Hal and Melanie shared their experiences in raising up their boys. Their methods are biblical, practical and full of love. As I read through the book, their love for God, for each other and for their children are fully evident. Some of the topics they spoke of are boys’ need for heroes, handling guns and violent weapons, work, leadership, sports and competition, teaching responsibility, teaching them at home, handling money and bullying.

When the writers first contacted me, they asked me to review and see if their book is applicable to Filipino families. I can say that this book is not only applicable to Filipinos, but it is applicable to each and every family who are raising up boys to become Godly men. Kudos to Hal and Melanie Young for writing this very delightful and insightful book!

Here’s a short anecdote about Flash Boy, now 2 years old. I learned from the Youngs that boys must be allowed to help around the house, that they should be trained early on to help their moms and sisters. One day, I came home from the market with a few bags of goods and a boxful of eggs. When Flash Boy saw me, he immediately came and wanted to help with the box of eggs. I didn’t want to give it to him but he was so insistent that I finally let him have it. He was so proud of himself carrying the box of eggs into the house. I was following closely behind him trying to make sure that he doesn’t drop it. When he saw our helper, he called her and said, “Catch!” and promptly threw the box at her. Both the helper and I screamed that the eggs would break. Seeing that the helper was not able to ‘catch’ the box, he picked it up again and said “Catch!” , once again throwing the box at her. Well, we ended up with half the eggs I bought all cracked open. But to see the value of Flash Boy being allowed to help, I’d gladly buy more boxes of eggs for him to help me carry! 🙂

Thanks to the authors, Hal and Melanie Young, for sending me an autographed and free copy of Raising Real Men – Surviving, Teaching and Appreciating Boys.

You can buy this book here.

Watch out for my blog interview with Hal and Melanie Young!

Michelle Padrelanan

Beyond the Silver and the Gold-

A Filipino Family’s Homeschool Journey