The longer I work with children and then watch them grow up into teenagers and young adults, I believe this to be true about boys:
They need to be able to wrestle with their dads. Everyday.
They need to be able to test their strength against their dads strength. They need to learn the rules of wrestling and what’s okay to do with your strength and what’s not okay. They need to know how to limit their strength when necessary and their dad can help with this. Boys can learn really good restraint in daily wrestling with their fathers! They need to have appropriate touch with their dad. They need to be able to be playful and silly with their dad.
It almost seems as though wrestling is built into boys and they need to see this activity as something appropriate in its right context.
