- Are you an annoying mom?
Do you think you aren't?
(giggling) You might be. I am.
Here are some signs that you might be
an annoying mom like me.
You try to get your sons to talk when they're upset.
You get upset if your 11-year-old doesn't want
to cuddle you and be your bestie like he used to be.
You try to curb your son's desires to run, explore,
and be physical under the auspices
of not wanting them to get hurt.
You wonder if there's something wrong with them
because they seem to wanna talk to their dad a lot more
than they wanna talk to you.
You wonder why they literally seem
to like the strange man they've never met
who pumps gas at the gas station more than they like you.
I wrote a book last year about girls called, Girling Up.
It was a guide to all of the things involved
in the process by which girls become women.
Puberty, biology, psychology, how we cope,
what emotions mean, all of it.
I wrote a companion to Girling Up
and it is called Boying Up.
It comes out May 8th, but you can pre-order it right now.
The link is below.
"But you're not a boy." I know.
"You can't know what it feels like
to be a boy." I know.
"You don't know anything about boys."
Well, I studied psychoneuroendocrinology,
so I know a little bit.
"That's not the same as being a boy."
I know! You're right
and I can be clueless and totally annoying
as a mom raising boys. I know!
Even though I'm a pretty boyish female and I love cars
and superheroes and playing Dungeons and Dragons,
I found out that as a mom of two boys,
I actually didn't have that much of a grasp
on what was going on in their brains and bodies.
I've had to learn with them and I'm still learning,
and in the process, I know that I can sometimes be annoying.
Boying Up is a conversation starter
and a guidebook all in one.
It's about the anatomy and physiology of boys.
It's about the hormones that make boys, boys,
and it's about what those hormones do to the behavior
and the desires of boys.
Boying Up is also a psychological exploration
into a journey that is so often misunderstood.
The journey is one of individuation and exploration,
which is the hallmark of boys becoming men.
This book tackles gender expectations
and the impact of hormones on gender.
It covers and, in some cases,
reveals the hidden mixed-messages we often give boys,
especially in this culture.
Be tough, but not too tough.
Be gentle, but not too gentle.
Be sensitive, but not too sensitive.
Be aggressive, but not too aggressive.
Boying Up also tackles the issues that so many parents
of boys are facing right now.
How can we, or should we at all,
try and regulate some of the natural tendencies
that boys have?
What about locker-room talk?
What about fraternity culture?
What about consent and why are so many boys diagnosed
with ADHD in the past 10 years?
Once I put all of this down in Boying Up,
I was able to shift to being a more understanding
and less annoying mom.
I learned to regulate my own anxiety
about my boys' development and it's allowed me
to let them flourish much more organically.
While this book is perfect for boys
between the ages of 10 and 18,
it's also perfect for moms and dads who wanna know more
about how boys become men with a special emphasis
on how it happens in our culture,
and it can serve, as Girling Up did,
as a terrific conversation starter for your family.
Well-rounded boys make for well-rounded men.
So much of our discomfort with boys and men can come
from a lack of understanding of their uniqueness.
I really hope that Boying Up can help us
to navigate the position of men and women
in our society, so that we can understand each other better
and bring out the best in each other.
I'm so excited for you to get your hands on Boying Up.
Check out the link in the description below,
pre-order your copy now, like, share, subscribe,
and see you next time.
Please let me know what you think about Boying Up.