I was reading Steve Biddulph’s book on raising boys in the 21st century on the plane today and testosterone has a lot to answer for.  Don’t get me wrong, I know it has a fundamental role making boys male – but does it really have to make them put themselves out in the rough and tumble on purpose?  During high levels of testosterone they can be really reckless (thinking about the consequences long after the action).  This makes keeping them safe a priority during those times, around 4, 8 and 13 or so years.

Every child is different so those testosterone surges can happen at different times.  I think it is important as parents to understand that it isn’t necessarily anything to do with our parenting that our lovely little boys turn into something else for a short period of time.

The important thing is to keep them safe and to try and give them an outlet for all of the excess testosterone. So that they are much less likely to do anything life threatening.

During the primary school years the importance of supervised play as it happens that play especially with a group can get easily out of hand.  Especially important to keep an eye on the buys during a play date (when they are between 4 and 10).

It was an enlightening book and so much of it made sense.  It is easy to read with a chatty style and I can’t recommend it enough.