You know what keeps me up at night as a father?
It’s not the usual stuff – grades, sports, or even whether my son will be successful.
What really haunts me is wondering if I’m giving my son the tools he needs to handle life’s real challenges.
Because here’s something nobody talks about:
Our boys are facing a world that’s more confusing than ever before.
When I was growing up, the path to manhood was clearer. Not easier, but clearer.
You worked hard, you provided for your family, you stood up for what’s right.
But today our sons are bombarded with mixed messages about what it means to be a man.
Just yesterday, I was watching my son’s friends scroll through social media, and it hit me – some of these young men are getting more “guidance” from random influencers than from the men in their lives.
But here’s the thing – it’s not their fault. It’s ours.
As men, we’ve gotten so caught up in providing a “better life” for our sons that we’ve forgotten something crucial:
Strong boys don’t become strong men by accident.
I share this with you because we’ve gotten so caught up in making sure our sons have every opportunity that we’ve forgotten something crucial.
Boys need real-world experience, not just information.
I learned this the hard way with my own son years back.
I used to think my job was to clear obstacles from his path. To make things easier for him than they were for me.
But I was dead wrong.
What our sons really need isn’t a perfect path – they need to learn how to navigate a messy one.
They need real-world experience, not just information.
And one of the easy ways you can do this is to show your son, not tell him.
Show him how you treat his mother, how you deal with stress, how you admit when you’re wrong.
Because here’s the truth:
Your son is going to learn how to be a man from somewhere. If not from you, then from YouTube, TikTok, or wherever else he spends his time.
And the question isn’t whether your son will become a man – that’s biology. But rather what kind of man will he become?
Will he know how to handle rejection?
Will he understand the value of his word?
Will he know how to lead with both strength and compassion?
These aren’t things we can just tell our sons about. They need to see them in action.
They need to practice them.
They need to fail at them and try again.
This isn’t about raising perfect men. It’s about raising real ones.
Stay strong,
Bedros Keuilian
P.S. Want to give your son what most boys today are missing? Join us at the next Squire class. This is your chance to intentionally build your son into a man of character.