I guess I’m not “hip” or “with the times.” You can guess by the descriptive terms I’ve just used I’ve proven myself to be aged out of the current societal trends and popular vernacular that the current, younger generation uses. In layman’s terms: I’m old. I don’t remember when it happened and I didn’t even realize it when it was happening … but it happened. So maybe I’m from a different generation or out of touch and it’s become accepted now for dads to call their sons “honey” … but to me it’s just weird! Honey is a term reserved for dads to call their daughters, moms to call their sons … even wives to call their husbands … but dads to their boys!?
Apparently, masculine toxicity (whatever the fuck that is!?) is a bad thing now and boys need to grow up to be more sensitive. As a society … sorry to say … we are raising our sons to become pussies. News flash! The world is a cruel place. The world doesn’t care if your feelings are hurt. The world doesn’t give you time to retreat to a safe space and cry through your feelings. As a male, you need to grow a thick skin and be able to deal with unpleasant things and assert yourself. Whether you like this or not is irrelevant! That is the world we live in.
Now before you start looking for the comments button to tell me what an asshole I am with an outdated, neanderthal mindset … just hear me out!
You can raise your kids however you want. That’s the great thing about America … Freedom! If you want to raise your sons to be sensitive … that’s your right! If you want to raise your sons to be in touch with their feelings and have a good cry … that’s your right too! If you want to raise your sons to be non-binary (I personally don’t buy into that stupid shit … but whatever) … that is your right! BUT … your son is going to have to interact with other boys who may not have been raised that way.
As an adult, you are well aware of how cruel kids can be! No parent wants their kids teased but if dad is dropping him off at school and says “Have a good day, honey” and his classmates hear … he is going to be teased. You can think the other kids are little pricks for doing that. You can think the other kids have terrible parents for not teaching them better. None of that is going to change the fact that your son is going to get teased.
I know, I know … Fuck you! I can call my son whatever endearing name I want to! Go ahead … I’m not telling you that you can’t … but think of how it’s going to affect your son. Is it going to cause him problems? Probably. I wish that weren’t the case … but I think it is. Maybe it’s not the case. Maybe I’m just an old man that doesn’t understand the way things are now but there are so many other names you could call him: buddy, pal, Bubba, dude, little man, champ, sport, chief, fella, boss, slugger, son. Any of these other terms of endearment will still show him you love him … but won’t get his ass beat!
Send your hate mail to comments@todayspetpeeve.com. I’ll be waiting.
TodaysPetPeeve 