There’s a trend among how parents are raising sons versus daughters, from my observations.

And it goes like this: Girls are raised to be young women, and boys are raised to always stay mama’s little boy.

Now, I’m not a mother, so I’m not trying to give any advice as to how to raise sons. What I am, though, is a girl who understands the struggle that many of us go through: we’re ready for real life years before guys are. 

I’m writing this post as a response to what I’ve seen so many of my friends go through, and from my own experience in dealing with boys whose mothers in particular have really not prepared them for the real world. This is a reaction to seeing so many boys who have great potential just stagnate at where they were at 15 or 16, because I am sick and tired of seeing such a waste of potential when what we really need in this world is for people to step up and act like adults. 

This isn’t me trying to bash mothers who love their sons, though–quite the opposite. Mothers: you want your sons to marry good, pretty, put-together girls, right? Well, women like that want to marry men, not boys. So this helps you, too. This isn’t just a rant for ranting’s sake.

One important note that I want to make is that this is not to let fathers off of the hook. In my mind, a father’s job is to show a boy HOW to be a man, whereas the mother needs to step back and ALLOW her son to be a man. And from my observations, sometimes moms can have a hard time letting go and letting their boys turn into men.

I feel extremely lucky to have married a man who can actually clean the apartment, cook, and handle finances. But I also think it’s ridiculous that I need to feel lucky about that. So, mothers, here is an open letter to you from the girls who will eventually marry your sons.  [Read more…]