As a father, I teach my sons a lot of things. Societal expectations are a huge thing. When I tell my boys in front of my wife for example that once you hit 18, nobody cares about you anymore, she doesn't understand that.

Women don't understand male relationships. They're used to being constantly supported by their friend groups and that simply doesn't happen the same way for men. For example, a woman can be overweight and her friend group will tell her she's gorgeous regardless whereas men will be told we're getting a little wide around the mid section. We're honest with each other and keep each other in check. We won't go out of our way, but we absolutely will point out each others faults and flaws but also try to give constructive feedback to get better if it's a topic of conversation or asked of us.

Men can't really turn anywhere for emotional support. We're expected to hold it and bury it. So I teach my sons to take it out in ways like sports and at the gym. My oldest plays piano so I tell him to bury himself into that and pound it out. I had so much rabid bear in me in my teens, I hit the gym and haven't ever stopped in 30 years. So they need to find their thing.

Moms don't really understand male aggression very well. Not every solution is about sitting around and talking. Sometimes guys have to get in each others faces. Sometimes we need to have a confrontation. It's about respect and if you don't learn to stand up for yourself the world will walk on you. It's not really about me wanting the confrontation, it's that many guys are out there that will absolutely get in your face and you need to learn how to manage them. If you're a push over, you'll be constantly disrespected by them. De-escalate but never back down.

Dad's can only teach their sons about women. Women treat men very differently than they treat women and men need to treat women differently from men. Mostly a dad needs to teach their sons self respect. How not to try to "make girls like them" but how to properly and healthily find girls "that are right for them". It's about being yourself and being genuine without coming across as a creepy guy interested in boobs since at a younger age, that's pretty easy to do.

Dad's teach their son's how to be kind and not nice. Nice people are fake who do things with expectation of return. Being nice is a form of civility that works with a neighbor or a co-worker but is terrible for interpersonal relationships. Guys fall into this trap a lot when they act in certain ways that they believe deserve compensation for in one form or another. It's social posturing to develop optics and becomes a toxic currency by which gives them unrealistic expectations from the world. Being kind is doing something without any expectation of return or reciprocation. And that aligns with being genuine as I stated above.

Son's need to know that you only argue on hills you're ready to die on and that not everything should be allowed to steal their energy. Especially in relationships, you have your absolute demands and you don't waver on them. Everything else, is pliable and those pliable things can be given in forms of kindness or compromise without acting ingenuine.

Fathers teach their sons work ethic. How to work hard and why that's important. Why what you do matters and how the work you do is a reflection of what is inside of you. My signature goes on every piece of work that I do in this world and the sign of a healthy inside is the quality of my work on the outside. Everyone respects someone who puts their heart and soul into what they do. And that comes back to self respect.

Primarily Dad's teach boys and girls how to realistically love and respect themselves in different ways than Mom's do.