I often say I feel like such a boy’s mom. While my oldest is a girl, the 3 boys that follow her regularly throw our house into chaos. Boys are definitely a whole different ball game. Recently, Carlos started reading my book on raising boys and as he read me quotes for the past few weeks, I realized I needed to share it with you all. If you have any boys in your house, I can’t recommend this book enough. It is called, “Wild Things: The Art of Nurturing Boys,” by Stephen James and David Thomas.

The authors are counselors who have worked with boys for many years and they spend the bulk of the book focused on the development phases boys go through. It is beyond helpful to understand why your boys are doing some of the things they are doing; to know how their brain is developing and how to handle different issues that come up. Did you know adolescence in boys doesn’t truly end until age 23? Honestly, just knowing the craziness that is coming out of your child is normal is all you need to make it through the day.

In case you are looking for a similar book for girls, “Raising Girls” is sort of the girl counterpart. While I didn’t love it as much as “Wild Things“, I still really liked it a lot and found it very helpful. I would definitely recommend moms of girls read it. Understanding development is a major help in my parenting and I think too often gets neglected after the baby stage.