Mothers of sons get left out in the cold

OCTOBER 05, 2011

I have to admit feeling a little left out when I wrote this blog post on the daddy-daughter date night they are throwing at Chik-Fil-A's next week. I'm irritated, but can't quite put my finger on it. We have daddy-daughter date nights, father-son picnics and mother-daughter tea parties ... But nothing for mom and sons? How come we mothers of boys get left out?

Everyone with a son should read William Pollack’s book, Real Boys, which warns of the influence of stereotypes on masculinity. Pollack argues that one of the reasons boys end up shooting up school yards is the societal pressure to disengage from their mothers, toughen up, don't show their emotions. Meanwhile, mothers are encouraged to withdraw from their sons, don't baby them or turn them into mamas boys. Maybe this is part of that.

Or am I reading too much into this?

I just know that when I see the fliers for mother-daughter tea parties at a teahouse in town or the father-son camp-outs, I think how I would love to do something with my boys that was organized like that.

In looking around the web, I saw that Chick-fil-A shops in Ohio hosted mother-son "Date Knights" in a similar vein, so I sent an email to the Tampa Bay Chick-Fil-A people, asking if this was in our future and was told: "We have done similar mother-son date nights in other markets, but we currently don’t have any upcoming in the Tampa/St. Pete area." Bummer.

--Sharon Kennedy Wynne

Posted by Sharon Wynne at 7:00:00 am on October 05, 2011 in

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Sharon Kennedy Wynne has sunscreen in her blood. She may have been born in Buffalo but she got here as fast as she could, in time for kindergarten. She grew up in St. Petersburg, graduated from the University of Florida journalism school, and even got married at Sunken Gardens. She's one of the few adults we know who actually loves taking her kids to the beach. She has two sons and with 10 years of parenting under her belt, she's starting to feel a little less out of her league. She comes from a large family and loves to debate, so brace yourself when the hot topics come up.

E-mail Sharon Kennedy Wynne:
wynne@tampabay.com

After six long years of trying to have a baby, Kate Brassfield was finally able to have one. And then, two minutes later, another one. Suddenly the lady who had never been around babies before was juggling two! Just as Kate felt she was getting pretty good with babies, the girls became toddlers, and now Kate is back to Square One, learning about the care and feeding of these strange, wonderful creatures. She spends her days working part-time from home and trying to keep up with the Twinosaurus Wrecks.

E-mail Kate Brassfield:
katedaphne17@gmail.com

Freelance writer Courtney Cairns Pastor wasn’t so sure about having kids and how she would balance child-rearing with her journalism career. It turned out that her journalism training went to good use. As the mom to a funny, active toddler, she learned to handle him like she did her sources. Never ask yes or no questions (the answer will always be no), get him to be specific (are you crying because you’re wet or your tooth hurts?) and be prepared for anything because no two days are the same. When she’s not playing trucks, Courtney crams for her book club, trains for races and occasionally bursts into showtunes. E-mail her at courtneyblogs@gmail.com.

Suzannah DiMarzio has it bad for the Mouse. Although she grew up outside of Boston, she took her degree in tourism management down to Orlando just to work at Disney and the travel industry. Of course, when she married her high school sweetheart, the reception was at Disney. She’s now a seasoned stay-at-home mom to two tweens and a toddler – and yes, that is as crazy as it sounds. Suzannah has her own blog, ZannaLand.com , and she's a member of the Walt Disney World Moms Panel in addition to being addicted to Twitter, iced coffee, and watching way too much Yo, Gabba Gabba.

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