This past weekend, my 16-year-old
daughter attended her Homecoming dance with her very first date ever. It was an
epic moment in her life, starting from the night she was asked to the formal
with a serenade and a trail of rose petals leading up to our doorway, and
ending, sadly, with a wilted corsage and teenaged heartbreak.
Ladies, you are a special bunch, having
been handed a tremendous obligation to shape the men of our daughters’ futures.
What kind of men, husbands and fathers your sons will be someday is all up to
you.
Teach them that it’s not OK to hit a
woman or cheat on someone to whom you have a sworn commitment. Educate them in
the importance of responsibility and that it’s not OK to abandon your children.
At the very least, make sure your sons understand that it is most certainly not
OK to leave a 16-year-old girl alone at a dance that your son invited her to so
that he could go to a party with his buddies that she was never invited to ---
especially when this young woman had been dreaming about getting her first kiss
from your son that night.
October is domestic violence awareness month. Changing this cycle of violent and disrespectful behavior toward women – and sometimes men, too -- starts at home. It starts with us, the mothers, our children’s first teachers.
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