I ask, Who takes care of the male child?
I agree with the peculiarities of the sexes. While it is clear that the female child and females as a whole are vulnerable and should be protected, I totally disagree with parents not paying close attention to the male child.
Sometime last year, a friend of mine recounted the gory details of how he was molested as a child. I was shocked, as you are, too, to hear that a male child was abused by a grown-up female under the nose of the parents. It is saddening, to say the least.
Society now woke with the recent girl-child trends has forgotten that the male child is also vulnerable to certain degrees.
Nobody says anything about the male child. The female child is monitored 24/7. She’s accounted for at every point, but who cares for the male child? While the female child is monitored, who monitors the male child?
In recent times, the trend “men are scum,” has been making rounds. There are so many stories of women suffering at the hands of their male partners. We joined hands and heaped curses on the heads of these male folks. We forget that who a person becomes is tied to his upbringing.
While parents invest their time and energy to teach the female child how to behave, they say things like, “When you get married, treat your husband like this,” “Don’t do this,” or “Don’t do that.” I cannot count how many times I’ve heard the phrase, “Don’t you know you’re a girl?”
We expend so much energy to inculcate family values in the female child and forget that she will not live alone. Or, would she marry herself? In that case, what then have we taught the male child? How to hunt and fish? What family values are we passing on to the boy child?
That same boy child we have allowed to grow without proper guidance and control will end up marrying our well-brought-up daughters and then turn them into shadows of themselves. The same boy-child we carelessly allowed to be raped and abused will grow up to devalue women and rape any female child that dares to come close.
That same boy child we refused to give proper guidance and protection to, will grow up to become the pain in our necks. They will turn society upside down and dare you to challenge them. A good number of them will indeed turn out well but what happens to the rest? The greater number perhaps.
Who takes care of the male child? I ask again. Is it you (as a parent)? Or the society? Will you be different?
