Dear Editor,
WE teach our girls from a young age to say no; to speak up when something feels wrong, to trust their instincts. But somewhere along the line, we decided that lesson was not for our boys, and I think that silence is doing more damage than we are willing to admit.
I have worked with boys who did not know they were allowed to say no—not to an adult who made them uncomfortable, not to a friend who pushed them too far, and not even to situations they knew, deep down, were not right for them. They had been raised to push through, to go along, to not make a fuss. Setting a boundary felt like weakness. And so, they never learned how.
At ChildLink Inc., we believe that teaching a boy to set boundaries is one of the most important things we can do for him. It protects him. It builds his self-worth. It teaches him that his comfort and safety matter just as much as anyone else’s, and perhaps most importantly, a boy who knows how to set boundaries grows into a man who knows how to respect them in others.
That is the kind of generation we should be raising. It starts with giving our boys permission to speak up.