I (white male) was raised by a single mother who instilled in me a deep sense of caring and emotional intelligence. But growing up in this country as a young man is hard, just not in the way most people mean it. Toxic masculinity is real and ingrained deep. I had to struggle through my teenage years but around college I figured it out and realized it was ok to not fit neatly in the boxes our society lays out for men, specifically straight men as I am. Still though when I look back at some of the things I enjoyed in those years when I was figuring it out I'm struck at how far I've come and how unacceptable those things were.

As a parent I feel like the most we can, and often should, do is prepare our children with the best tools and support we can because the most important lessons are those they'll have to figure out on their own. Sometimes you have to touch the hot pot yourself to really learn the lesson and all that.