Communication

What has this to do with parenting you ask? An appalling case, two people dead, one blinded, opinion split nationally. ‘He deserved it.’

By all accounts Moat was a violent thug. But he was a parent. He was a human being and someone’s son. His crimes were unspeakable, but 12 months ago he asked for help. It didn’t happen. If you want macho, watch ‘The Bill.’ In a recent episode, one copper sees another parent hang himself, helps cut him down and he survives. But he had already killed his son. The copper goes to revive him. Later he has a breakdown.  His sergeant brushes off his own father’s death as if it were a fly.

These last two cases were fiction. And maybe the macho posturing will be shot down in future episodes.

Macho, insensitive, alpha male, sexist programming is garbage. It doesn’t work. It makes the macho man even worse in later life. It closes him down and can make him ill. Or in extreme cases, far worse.

Is your son learning to bury his feelings and build a wall around him? Are you digging a moat?  Show him a better way.

Jack Stewart