Share our imperfections with the boys so they know that we’re all perfectly imperfect.

We’ll share our own imperfections and teach them the importance of self-compassion as well as compassion towards others.

Laugh with the kids not at them.

We can see Deacon becoming self-conscious when people laugh at things he says. We want to be good examples for the boys by not making fun of them or other people.

Teach the importance of equality.

We want to teach Deacon and Dylan to not judge other people for being different. Since we don’t believe church teaches equality we don’t want the kids to go to church while they are young.

Speak to the kids the way we want to be spoken to.

All kids are good and have good intentions. Kids are humans and humans mess up. We don’t call them bad or yell at them or speak to them in anyway that we would not want to be spoken to.

Let them be sad and cry if they want to.

If they are sad let them be sad and comfort them. We want them to know it’s ok to be sad and it’s ok to cry. We don’t say boys don’t cry because that’s not true. We want them to express their emotions in healthy ways.  

Promote a positive body image.

We want them to know healthy eating is important and we want them to have healthy views of their bodies. So we don’t want to make negative comments about their bodies, our own bodies, or other people’s bodies. 

Show them that being a man means being a kind human.

We don’t want the boys to do things just because they think that’s what a man is supposed to do. We want to teach them that being a kind human is how any person can be a good man or woman. 

Encourage them to pursue their interests.

We want to make sure that we are not pressuring the boys to play a certain sport or go after a particular career. We want them to know that we will always support their decisions and love them unconditionally.

Be a good technology role model.

We want to be good examples for the boys and model good behavior by showing we are not addicted to screens. We also want to teach them to be present so we try to not be on our phones all the time.

Take care of their mental health in addition to their physical health.

We want the boys to know it’s important to take care of their physical health and their mental health. We’ll set a good example for them by making sure we are prioritizing healthy mental and physical habits.

Build their confidence through trying new things.

We want to make sure we don’t teach the boys to avoid difficult situations but show them how to work through them. This includes letting them struggle and experiencing rejection so they can learn to be resilient.

Avoid passing our fears onto the kids.

When something scares us we want to practice a healthy reaction to the scary situation. We don’t want to be overly cautious by saying be careful when there’s little danger.