How do you address the topic of toxic masculinity with a teenage boy? It's an issue that's left parenting writer Debra Waters feeling anxious. She shares her own experiences, talks to two experts and asks three other mums for their thoughts...
When I gave birth to a boy, I worried about how to raise him to respect and love women and see them as equals, without belittling his ‘maleness’. I wanted my son to feel like he could cry when he needed to, that he didn’t have to hide his sensitive side, and that he could always ask for support. But even I, to my shame, occasionally told him to get it together – not because I think that men crying is bad (quite the opposite), but because I didn’t want him to be judged by his peers.
