Dr Navneet Kour
A woman can’t be a King, and a man can’t be a Queen. But both can rule.
“We hear this very commonly these days that,”we’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons”. But few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.’ What effect would that have?”
“A huge and very deep effect. Just as women become more whole by venturing outside the home, men become whole by venturing inside the home and being able to raise children. There are human qualities that are wrongly called ‘feminine’, just as there are qualities wrongly called ‘masculine’. Patience, empathy, attention to detail… We all have them all, but they are developed in women because we’re raised to raise children. There’s a great book by Dorothy Dinnerstein called The Mermaid and the Minotaur that will convince you that men raising children as much as women do is the key to world peace.”
We tried to raise our sons to be empathetic and caring as well as strong and courageous. I think we were successful. They are awesome young men.
We should just raise our children, both boys and girls with just strong noble values and open mindness, then let them be what they want to be and achieve what will make them happy in life and feel successful. Everything else that will categorize them without their will, would be dictatorship in their lives, whether they realize it one day or not.
We all have one life on Earth ; It is better to be aware of the world around us , to be given safeguards that will allow us to respect our fellow citizens and to be respected in return and then to be allowed to live the life we have voluntarily chosen, with its ups and downs.
We are all unique in the universe and we complement each other.
I believe both should be given equal opportunities but we all know that both can’t have equal energy in few directions if they operate at their threshold without extra efforts.
Let’s all pledge that, “I will train my sons to be human,
I will train my daughters to be human,
To be themselves and go after their dreams
To treat others with respect, love and impartiality and as equals.
Not to be a man nor woman but to BEING human.
A woman can’t be a King, and a man can’t be a Queen. But both can rule.
We need to raise men who are allowed and equipped to feel and express their emotions. It is a healthy part of being human.
‘Feminine’ and ‘masculine’ qualities are HUMAN qualities, pure and simple. As we evolve to being more fluid with sexual orientation, we should equally recognise human traits as being fluid. No one person is the same. Let us be who we are meant to be. People are being commoditised like products! It’s obviously not working. What are we so scared of? Humans?
We need to stop comparing genders all the time … why can’t we just appreciate people for who and what they are be it any gender.
Some say , “I didn’t have a son, I had a daughter. If I had a son I would have taught him the same values I taught my daughter”.
Raising children to be the best version of themselves, have compassion and understanding of those around them and provide opportunities for growth in all aspects of life! You don’t need to be a parent to raise a child, all you need to be is human – we all have that in us, we are all capable of making a change for the better and positively impacting the present generation and those that come ahead of us! Just do your best.
Couldn’t agree more.
The idea of balancing Yin-Yang energy is basic to every individual and much of a necessity in such times of growth, expansion and execution where every individual requires much needed efforts to not only share duties but also be responsible enough to become efficient for overall growth!
I was very lucky to be married to a wonderful man who agrees that raising our boys is our joint, equally-shared responsibility. We encourage our boys to understand and express their feelings – and to be comfortable with that. We are trying our best to raise them to be kind, caring, empathetic humans and good citizens.
I am trying to equalise differences. Through this article I am trying to show to all of us that men can be as sensible as women are and that does not make them less of a man in their manhood and men as good in raising child as mothers are and sometimes even better. As a social reformer I’m looking forward to the day we can drop gendered connotations of what it means to be a man or woman, so we can meet each other as fellow human beings. I’m looking forward to the day we can see someone for their heart, rather than our subjective expectations based on their images as men or women. To bridge this gap we as social reformers are initiating to bring up gender sensitised clubs in schools, colleges and universities.
(The author is founder Chairperson NGO SUPPORT.)