Raising Boys: Why Boys are Different – and How to Help them Become Happy and Well-Balanced Men

Raising Boys: Why Boys are Different – and How to Help them Become Happy and Well-Balanced Men
Steve Biddulph

A word of mouth bestseller which has become one of the best loved and most successful books in the parenting field from Australian writer and lecturer Steve Biddulph, who’s been called ‘a mixture of Billy Connelly and Dr Spock’ by The Times.In this expanded and updated edition, Steve Biddulph shares and gives practical and honest advice to parents so they can recognise the different stages of boyhood and learn how to raise happy, confident and kind young men.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 happy, responsible, emotionally-confident adults.While it is essential that boys spend more time learning about manhood from their fathers, Biddulph updates his classic to include helpful information for mothers and single mothers with baby boys.This extended edition explores some important topics:.• How ADHD may be caused by stress in the first year of life.• Whether boys should start school later than girls.• Help for single mothers raising sons.• How to choose a sport that does more good than harm.• What we can do about boys and binge drinking.• What science can tell us about teenage boys and driving – and how we can keep our sons safe.Raising Boys offers parents real-life situations, thought-provoking insights, humour and help.

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Copyright (#uf2077949-22e2-5bc5-9fc4-c10541482bef)

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First published in 1997 by Finch Publishing Pty Ltd, Australia

Revised and updated edition published in 2010 by HarperThorsons

This revised and updated edition 2018

Text © Stephen and Shaaron Biddulph 1998, 2003, 2008, 2018

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018

Cover photograph © KidStock/Blend Images/Getty Images

Illustrations by Paul Stanish

Permissions: The author gratefully acknowledges the permission of the following for the right to reproduce copyright material in this publication: ‘What Fathers Do’ by Jack Kammer, is reprinted from Full-Time Dads, May/June 1995 Issue, with the permission of the author; six myths of porn is reprinted from Elizabeth Clark, Love, Sex and No Regrets for Today’s Teens (Finch, Sydney, 2017).

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

Steve Biddulph asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

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Source ISBN: 9780008283674

Ebook Edition © April 2018 ISBN: 9780007519736

Version: 2018-03-28

Dedication (#uf2077949-22e2-5bc5-9fc4-c10541482bef)

In memory of Joan Biddulph

1928–2017

for words, laughter, and big skies

Contents

Cover (#udb2a31e9-50f7-5b43-bc62-66bbc8f2f61e)

Title Page (#u7a275253-ba04-5957-b6e9-831afec7df3e)

Copyright (#u1e912676-4661-55ce-ab34-df895a9fed45)

Dedication (#ud8ffdd31-8ab0-59cb-a35f-cda7c1146dd2)

Boyhood Has Changed (#u1a8afaee-c1a3-529d-b294-c9b1b87b8f4b)

An Important Note (#u22f91ab3-aef6-557a-91c1-3d653588e438)

1 What Is It with Boys? (#u24c4c8ea-ba36-5350-bc90-5621305e1a91)

2 The Three Stages of Boyhood (#u5a968427-7e9a-54c6-ba07-04d2c9310d90)

3 Testosterone (#u922c16c3-89d7-593a-8e0b-4353dd652fe8)

4 Making a New Kind of Man (#litres_trial_promo)

5 What Dads Can Do (#litres_trial_promo)

6 Mothers and Sons (#litres_trial_promo)

7 Developing a Healthy Sexuality (#litres_trial_promo)

8 Out into the Big World (#litres_trial_promo)

9 Boys and Sport (#litres_trial_promo)

10 A Community Challenge (#litres_trial_promo)

Notes (#litres_trial_promo)

Appendix: Do Gender Differences Exist, and Do They Matter? (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Steve Biddulph (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)