We hear it all the time: a little boy, who is “all boy,” falls and hurts himself. “Oh, boys will be boys,” you hear in response. A boy chases girls around the playground and pulls her hair–again you hear, “Boys will be boys.” Then two boys get into a scuffle and there’s the saying again–boys will be boys. Teenage boys sneak alcohol and get drunk together and again, boys will be boys. Boys sneak out to go see their sweeties and guess what... boys will be boys. They get pulled over for drinking and driving, they may get into some trouble, but at some point someone is guaranteed to roll their eyes and say, “Boys will be boys.”
It keeps just getting worse, but where do we draw the line? When are these boys supposed to become men? Boys are used to hearing this excuse made for them over and over, when they’re supposed to grow up and be men, but they haven’t grown up because guess what? Boys will still be boys.
Boys are raised hearing this. And because of this, they expect the excuse to continue to be made for them. Boys will not be men. Boys should be raised to be men. When a boy is being a boy, take that time to teach him how a man would handle the situation. No, I’m not talking about toddlers. I’m talking about changing that thought and excuse when kids are able to understand and take responsibility for their actions.
It’s proven that boys mature mentally at a much slower rate than girls. Boys shouldn’t always be boys. This train of thought leads to harmful actions in their future. We don’t realize how an innocent saying can truly train someone to believe a certain action is OK.
While you can’t directly correlate this phrase to harmful actions, we have to understand that making excuses for someone because of their gender is unacceptable. Boys should be held accountable for their actions just like a girl would be. When these boys get to college, that’s exactly what they are: Boys. These boys are on their own in a world where they should be young men, and if you’re sending a boy into the real world, they're going to make boy-like decisions and expect to get away with it.
We’ve all heard it too many times before, “Oh, she was intoxicated and asked for it," "Did you see how she was dressed? She wanted it.” These boys who commit these crimes, sadly, do get away with it more times than not. Boys will always be boys, unless they're raised to be men.
