As Father’s day approaches , you really start to think about  how you can help your little boy prepare himself for manhood. As fathers, it is important that we watch how we speak and behave, especially when teaching our sons how to be a man. Without realizing it, we are role models for our kids. Their minds are impressionable and they watch everything, especially Dad. They notice the way you treat and talk to their mom, how you handle a personal crisis, and how you deal with professional problems. It is said that “Children learn more what is caught rather than what is taught”. Keeping that in mind, here are 6 ways to prepare your little boy for manhood.

 

Be Respectful

The most effective way to teach kids respectful behavior is to model it yourself.

Money management

A real man provides for his family, not only by working hard to pay the bills, but also by being a smart with  his resources. We must teach our boys how to handle money wisely and how to exercise self-control over spending frivolously.

 Be a Gentleman

It is important for fathers to teach their sons to be gentlemen. This means teaching your son to have good manners. You can do this by: teaching him to give people their full attention, the importance of writing thank you notes when someone does something nice, to open doors for others, to always walk on the street side when he is with a lady, and lastly, teaching him to have a firm handshake while making eye contact.

Taking responsibility

A boy’s mom is not his maid or personal servant. If he lives in the house he needs to help do the work. A boy can help do his laundry, clean his room, take out the trash, and even cook his own breakfast on occasion. This is preparing your son for life. If we coddle and pamper our boys, they’ll be in for a rude awakening when they find out there’s nobody there to bail them out of fixing the clogged toilet, fixing the car, or repairing the leak in the ceiling. When and if he gets married, he’ll be expecting the same coddling and pampering out of his wife when he really needs to be picking out his own clothes and making sure his own dirty socks make it to the hamper.

 Be Generous

It is important for fathers to teach their sons the importance of being givers. Givers are value adders and what father doesn’t want their sons to add value to those around them? You can do this by creating three mason jars and writing on them: Saving, Spending, and Sharing. At the end of the week when your sons receive their allowances, have them distribute the money into these three jars. This will help them focus on giving while also teaching them the importance of handling finances.

Be Different

It is important to teach our sons to be different. Most kids want to fit in and there is nothing wrong with that. With that being said, if you want your son to become a  leader one day, you need to teach him that it is good to be different. To do this, he needs to feel accepted by those closest to him. Let your son know that you love him not because of his achievements , but because of who he is as a man.