Boys Can Be Sensitive Too

Boys are socially conditioned to ‘act tough’ and repress their emotions. But, instead of shoving your boy into the ‘act-like-a-man’ box, equip him to tap his finer senses and shape up into a happy, adorable man.

- Prachi S. Vaish

WHEN

I sat down to pen this article, the first boy I was reminded of was my 8-year-old son. Recently, I went walking to the nearby market and he accompanied me on his bicycle. While returning, I was loaded with bags and wanted to get home as quickly as possible. But I saw him following me on his bicycle instead of getting home faster. I was a little peeved by this because I felt it was slowing me down. Needless to say, I snapped at my boy on the road. But his response stopped me in my tracks. He said, “Mom, the road is so dark and I don’t want you to walk alone when you’re carrying so many heavy bags. That’s why I’m matching your pace.” For the rest of the evening, the mom in me kept wondering, ‘What did I do right to instil such empathy in him?’ And the psychologist inside asked, ‘Was this an inborn trait?’ After a lot of thinking and research on the subject, I realized that even though each child is born with a basic personality type which persists through his life, more or less, there is a lot you can do to hone it and add on to it to turn your boy into a thoughtful and perceptive human being.

DECODING THE TERM ‘SENSITIVE’