Raising Boys - Steve Biddulph

I never really thought about whether I wanted boys or girls before I had children. ‘As long as they’re healthy…….’, I thought, like countless parents before me. If pressed on the subject I would probably have retorted that the idea of ‘gender behaviour’ is largely cultural and that any children I had would certainly not be stereotypical ‘girlies’ or ‘lads’. I had two boys and nowadays I look back at that childless person and think ‘What on earth did she know?’. Conor and Kieran, like many small boys, have an obsessional interest in all things militaria, if clothes aren’t ...  Read the complete review

When a woman becomes pregnant, most of her friends and family and sometimes even complete strangers suddenly develop oracle virtues. This happened to me as well; everyone started making "tests" one me to see whether I would have a boy or a girl. Different cultures (and I have friends from all over the place) tend to have different ways of divining whether you are carrying a child of the male or female sex. If your tummy is too high, it's a boy, if you twist your hand like this, it's a girl, if you become ugly (only the mother will dare admit this), it's a girl (apparently, they steal your beauty - if you have one), if you want to eat sweets, it's a ...  Read the complete review

Rarely have I read a book as quickly as this one, but rarely has a book been so easy to access. Steve Biddulph doesn’t mess about with fancy words, he writes in a very conversational way that is easy to read. As the title suggests, it is a book about raising boys, and Steve goes to great lengths to describe why boys are different to girls - and I must admit to recognising some of my own traits from when I was younger. Taking this as a starting point he then describes the stages that boys go through when they grow up and what they are looking for in parents and peers. One point that comes through clearly is that many problems relating to boys ...  Read the complete review

It was with some scepticism that I picked this book up at my local library, but I'd had it (and its partner book, Raising Girls) recommended to me so I thought I'd give it a go. First off, the introduction. It explains that the book is meant to be read as a whole over a couple of days, rather than religiously followed as an instruction manual. That makes sense to me - every child and every family is different, and nothing eorks for everyone. In fact that was a general theme of the book which I liked; take what works for you and discrad the rest. There are three main themes to the book as a whole: biological differences between boys and girls, and ...  Read the complete review

I found this book very interesting and helpful to help me understand my three boys. As a single mum with no brothers, I have often wondered why boys are so different to girls in many ways. This book has helped me to understand why my boys are not interested in pencil and paper activitetes, reading etc and why they are always on the go. Hopefully it will in some way help to guide me on what to do and or say to help them whilst they are growing up ...  Read the complete review