DR. WARREN FARRELL | The Dangers of Dad-Deprivation
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 17 minutes
Words per Minute
173.90538
Summary
Dr. Warren Farrell is the author of The Boy Crisis and many other books written to explore society from the lens of both women and men. Today, we talk about the dangers of lacking structure and purpose, how the quote-unquote dad style of parenting actually creates awareness and empathy, and how dopamine and other physiological responses assist boys and men in doing the right thing, and also the dangers and destructive results of dad deprivation.
Transcript
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I think whether you're willing to acknowledge it or not, we are most definitely facing a crisis
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of our young men from incarceration and suicide rates to substance abuse issues to failing and
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lagging societal metrics. It's safe and also extremely tragic to say that our boys are
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fighting an uphill battle. My guest today is Dr. Warren Farrell, the author of The Boy Crisis
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and many other books written to explore society from the lens of both women and men. Today,
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we talk about the dangers of lacking structure and purpose, how the quote-unquote dad style versus
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the quote-unquote mom style of parenting actually creates awareness and empathy, how dopamine
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secretion and other physiological responses assist boys and men in doing the right thing,
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and also the dangers and destructive results of dad deprivation. You're a man of action. You live
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life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down,
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you get back up one more time. Every time. You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient.
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Strong. This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day,
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and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today?
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My name is Ryan Mickler. I'm the host and the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement.
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Welcome here. Guys, the conversation I have today with Dr. Warren Farrell is one of my favorite
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conversations. Anytime I get to talk about boys and young men and men and how we interact with and
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show up in the world and how we can serve ourselves and our families and communities better,
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I love it because that's what this podcast is all about. It's all about giving you the tools
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and resources, conversations, et cetera, to help you become a more effective, capable man.
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And isn't that what society needs? Isn't that what you want to be? And isn't that what people
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need of you? So I'm going to get into it with Dr. Warren Farrell here in a minute. Before I do,
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just want to mention very quickly, my friends, my good friends, my jujitsu training partners,
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Check out their hunt line. All right, guys, with that said, let's get to my friend and somebody,
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man, I just deeply, deeply admire and respect this individual. His name is Dr. Warren Farrell.
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He is the author of The Boy Crisis and many other books. His insight is, it's enlightening.
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It's fascinating when it comes to the dangers of not only what our young men are facing, but then how
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that translates into, to put it mildly, less than desirable outcomes for society as a whole.
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He's been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, The New York Times, Forbes, Wall Street Journal,
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and has proven to be an incredible, incredible resource for parents and the young men who seem
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to be struggling so much. Again, in his book, The Boy Crisis, he lays it all out there with regards to
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how our young men are struggling, and more importantly, what we as men can do about it.
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Guys, I always enjoy my talks with Dr. Farrell and his incredible insight. I know you will as well.
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Warren, it's so good to see you again. I was looking at it. We had a conversation,
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believe it or not, it's almost been four years. I can't believe that it's, I thought it would have
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been two, but I cannot believe that it's been four years since we had our initial conversation.
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It's a sign of aging. The older you get, the shorter the period of time appears to be.
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We were talking about trading some red with some gray. I think we can work something out here, but
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a little bit still, a little bit of gray in there.
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I don't see it yet, but it's really great. Your beard is admirable. Yeah, I think it was four years
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ago because I know The Boy Crisis book came out about four years ago. So I think we, you did one of the
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early interviews with me and you were in Utah, weren't you? Yeah, I was in Utah. We moved out
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here to Maine about three years ago and it just, when we talked, it probably wasn't even on my radar
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to come out here, but it's just been such a great thing for my wife and my three boys and my daughter
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and we just love it. Oh, that's wonderful. How old are your boys now?
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So I've got a, let me think, it's going to take me a second. I've got a 14-year-old,
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an 11-year-old, my daughter is eight, almost nine, and then my youngest son is six. So I got a full
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house over here. You have a full house. Well, and you will, and has The Boy Crisis book, has that been
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helpful for you in raising your son? Oh, incredibly helpful. In fact, your book and some other
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information that we have access to and books and things that we've read, we decided when we moved
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out here that we would pull our children out of public school. So when we moved here now, so it's
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been three years, about a year before COVID and the reaction to COVID, we decided that we would
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homeschool our children for some very deliberate and intentional reasons. And I know you talk a lot
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about the school system being stacked against our young men and set up for our young ladies.
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And that coupled with some other thoughts that we had, my wife and I made the decision to pull our
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kids out of public school and start homeschooling or home-based education.
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And how has that been? How has that been for the development of the kids?
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That's been great. I mean, it's been great. The beautiful thing about homeschool, and I talk a lot
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about this with the guys is that instead of having 25, 30, 35 kids in the classroom, we have four.
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We know them obviously intimately. My daughter is dyslexic. I didn't know that until we started
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homeschooling. My wife would say the same thing. And then we can cater their experience and their
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learning and education based on some aptitude that they may have for certain things versus others.
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And so it's a beautiful... I don't have any problem with school teachers. I really have a problem with
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the system in general that made us make that decision. It's been really good.
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Oh, I'm very glad to hear that. How do you give them good social skill training, meeting other kids,
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meeting strangers, meeting kids they don't like? How does that work in with homeschooling?
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I'm... That's one of the biggest questions that we get. So they're very involved and active in
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physical activity. So it's through powerlifting. My two oldest boys do powerlifting with about five to
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six other young men in the community. My two oldest boys also play football. So they're very active in
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football with their teams and whatnot. My daughter is very involved in dance. And then we have a very
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tight-knit CrossFit community and friends that we spend a lot of time with. We invite them over.
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We have barbecues and dinners and things together. And then we're actually working... This year will be
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our first year with a co-op where there's five other families in the community who are all home-based
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education, where they're going to be learning from other parents involved with other kids. Because
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that was my biggest concern is how do you make sure they get the social interaction? And I really like
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that you said kids they don't like. That's one of the things that I think a lot of people overlook
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because that interpersonal dynamic is huge. And I think a lot of home-based education parents
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overlook the importance of that. Yes. And it's important, you know, when you're homeschooling
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somebody, you're almost always going to train your son and your daughters, but especially your sons,
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not to be bullies. But it's all as important to make sure that they know how to handle bullies
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and not just handle them by beating them up, but handle them by respecting the bullies need to be
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respected. And understanding that under almost all anger and abusiveness is vulnerability. And so being
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able to connect to that vulnerability. I remember in the Boy Crisis book, I think you may remember reading
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where I said I learned that sort of almost intuitively as a kid and I was in about eighth grade and I had
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moved over from another school district, another town to the town that we lived in. The town we lived
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in was much more working class. The new town was much more working class. And I sort of stood out as a
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student. And one of the boys really, who was a sort of gang leader, he really sort of thought of me as
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being sort of the goody two shoes. And he confronted me one day and he had a brick in his hand. And he
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was ready to throw that brick right through my head. And he just really basically wanted to get rid of
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me. And I said to him, you know, that, you know, it was really great that he was the leader of this
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gang. And because, you know, and what did I think, what did he think that the leadership skills that he
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had, that led to him being selected as a leader and being able to sustain himself as a leader?
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And he like started to get into that. And he told me what he thought his leadership skills were.
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And as he did that, his brick just dropped and, you know, the hand dropped and then the brick just
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dropped to the ground. And it was like, you know, I was and what I was and, you know, I didn't have,
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you know, I hadn't read books like The Boy Crisis. And, you know, that told me here's a good way to
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approach a bully. But, you know, it was sort of like, I guess it was a survival instinct that led
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me to just reaching for that. And, you know, or else I may not have been around here today to talk
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about it. Well, you know, it's interesting. I think this is where our past might diverge a little
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bit, because when I hear you tell that story, my immediate reaction is, I would tell that guy,
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you have one shot. And if you miss, you're dead. So it's a very interesting thing when you come at
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at it from this perspective, which obviously worked, clearly worked. And there's so many
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different ways to approach the situation. I'm always trying to figure out the balance between
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toughness and assertiveness with my young men specifically, maybe more so than my daughter,
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and the balance between that and tenderness and care and empathy, which I think is what you
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exhibited here in this story you're sharing. Yes. And at the same, first of all, you've put your
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finger now exactly on the biggest point that is a value, I think, which is the the word balance.
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And it's having the skill sets to both be able to confront. And at the same time, the skill set to be
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able to understand that bullies and bullies, the both the bully and the bullied, have in common,
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oftentimes, low self-esteem, feelings of insecurity. And so it is interesting that the opposite behaviors
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are manifested with the underlying similar personality characteristics. And so there's sort of two ways of
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approaching sort of a bully, if you will. One is the way I just shared. And the other way, my father,
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and this worked at a different time in my growing up, my father had always said, basically, you have
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to stand up to a bully, just like you were just talking about, right, let it know that you just
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can't be pushed around, and that you need to be respected, basically. And my father had taught me to
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box and to wrestle. But in the eighth grade, in this school, also, that I just was talking about
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moving to, there was another guy there that was a sort of muscle leader. And he had the same type,
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he was a muscle builder. And he was very respected and absolutely gorgeous. And he was, you know,
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very much known for being a bully. And my father had taught me both to box and to wrestle. And but I
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knew I couldn't outbox this guy. So and he sort of kept confronting me and sort of sort of calling
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me chicken to, you know, sort of encounter with him. And I did agree to wrestle with him. And my father
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taught me well enough that I was able to pin him down in a few seconds. And when I had him pinned down,
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he said, please let me up. I'll always support you. And I let him up. And two things happened there.
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One is he did follow through. He always supported me after that. And B, what was the deepest sadness
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for me is even though I was good in my schoolwork, etc, and generally decent in sports, the I got more
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respect from my classmates from being able to pin him down than I did from anything else I did. And for
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me, that was very, very sad. You know, that the respect came to me from being able to be somebody
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who won at a wrestling match, rather than, you know, made contributions through being good at school or
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somewhat decent in sports. I was not never a standout, but I was good at sports. And, and I had
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started the soccer team in my school, etc. And yet that didn't command as much respect as, you know,
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as, as this little wrestling match. And do you think, so a question on that, because I don't,
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I don't disagree. I can certainly see why men will respect another man or young boy in this case with
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some sort of physical aptitude. But as we get older, don't you think the same level of respect
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would be commanded if you became the CEO of a fortune 500 company, or you were maybe a more
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superficial metric would be you drive around a Lamborghini or you wear, you know, the $10,000
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watch. Don't you think that the same level of respect would be granted on some other metrics that
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might be a better metric of aptitude as you get older and more mature?
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Yes. And I would say even the, those metrics are really sad metrics also, um, because, um,
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for us to be evaluating for, for me to evaluate myself, um, on the, you know, on the Lamborghini,
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which I do not have, or the other, you know, uh, equivalent measures, or even, you know,
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oh, this is Warren Farrell. He wrote X number of books and right. New York times, bestselling
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authors, these sort of titles, right? Yes, exactly. And, you know, um, and, and I hope
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that as the more mature I become, um, that the more I look for, um, respecting people who
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can listen, who can not be concerned with themselves, who can not be focused on what
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type of home they have. And, and, you know, you want to live in a nice home in a nice place,
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but that not, that should not be our definition of ourselves, how well you're raising your
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children, uh, your devotion to them in homeschooling, the way you communicate with your wife,
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the way you, you're here, you listen to your wife. Um, and the, the way, um, you, um, give space
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to each of your kids to speak up and share what's inside of them. Um, as you know, in the boy crisis
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book, I have a whole section on family dinner night, and particularly on how to prevent family
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dinner nights from becoming family dinner nightmares. And, you know, and one of the important
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things about family dinner nights is not only teaching the parents how to listen to the kids
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and be empathetic with the kids stories and not interrupt the kids stories, but also making
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sure that the kids are required to listen to the parents stories as parents versions and
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not interrupt the, the, um, uh, the parents stories. One of the ways to make sure that children
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are not empathetic is to always be empathetic toward the children, as opposed to both being
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empathetic toward the children and also requiring the children to be able to demonstrate empathy
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toward the parents and to their brothers and sisters. So you have to allow them the opportunity
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to be empathetic is what you're saying. And more so than even allow, allow them the opportunity
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to be would be ideal. Most kids when they're younger do not pursue that opportunity. They have to be
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required to develop the discipline, to move from a self-centered space, uh, to a balance between
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self-centered and other centered space. Interesting. Required versus allowed. That's interesting because
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I see a lot of this manifest itself in society today. And I think it started with the whole,
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you know, the, the, the phrase we all hear. And, and this may be more indicative of when you were
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younger, cause you're a bit older than I am is, you know, kids should be seen and not heard. No,
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no, no, of course. Right. And then you graduate to this newer age version of parenting, which is where
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no kids now can dictate their gender and they can dictate what time they should go to bed and what
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activities they should be involved in. And I think both are opposite ends of the extremes,
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the spectrum. And, and I don't think either are correct. I would, I have three perspectives on that.
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Yes. Yes. And yes. So totally agree with you. Um, and, and it really is, um, you know, we've,
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we've jumped from one extreme to the other and both extremes are really very damaging to the
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children. Hmm. I'm very curious about this, uh, this way that young boys approach their self-esteem
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issues. You said it manifests itself. And I, and I'm sure again, there's a spectrum, but it manifests
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itself potentially as the weak link, right? The coward who's timid and passive and lets himself get
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railroaded. And then you have the bully who asserts himself and attempts to dominate not through
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capability, but through intimidation. Is that a nature thing that more young men are designed to act
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one way or the other? Or is that something that's nurtured through their environment, through parenting
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or lack thereof and exposure to other stimulus that makes them behave one way or the other?
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The answer to that is yes. Meaning it's, it's, it's nature and nurture, um, combined. Um, and you
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know, if, if I were to get percentages about 70% nature and about 70% nurture, meaning that it's so
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inter that, that as you, you know, as you, you're a veteran. And so, you know, as you trained in the
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military, um, even if you went into the military and you were over protected, which you probably
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weren't, but as you know, many people in the military, um, um, chill boys who have a single
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mothers, um, they have a higher percentage chance of joining the military than any other single, um,
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uh, parenting, parenting group. And that's actually, yes. And that's actually quite useful because
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oftentimes the single mothers, um, um, do not do as much boundary enforcement as, um, they, as
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the children would have, if they had both fathers and mothers, um, and an active father, which
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usually, who usually requires more boundary enforcement. So the, both the child, but both
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the boy and the pair and the mother sort of sense that the boy needs structure and, um, and is,
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and is without it. And the military, as you know, creates that structure. So the boy going into the
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military and it also creates requirements. So you, you know, you weren't given the option of, um, you
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know, of, of doing, uh, getting up at a certain time, doing certain things, uh, running certain
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paths, you know, uh, training in certain ways you were required to do that. And as you're required
00:22:02.160
to do that, different synapses develop in your brain, uh, that begin to change what you would think
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of as nature. Um, but it's, it's, it's in our nature to be able to adapt to social, um, to social
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messages. That's why it's 70% nature and 70% nurture. Um, one of the things along those lines
00:22:23.520
that is fascinating is that, you know, many people think of mothers as being more biologically
00:22:29.180
oriented toward raising children, uh, than dads are. Um, but children raised by dads, um, and well,
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children raised by dads and moms together tend to do the best on average, but children raised by
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fathers only do, um, better than children raised by mothers only. And what, what do you mean by do
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the best? What, when you say do the best, what metrics are we mentioning? We're talking about,
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um, having postponed gratification, which is the biggest, um, predictor of success or failure,
00:23:01.420
uh, being able to have discipline, being able to have, um, a warm and open and loving personality
00:23:08.120
that other people can connect with, being able to listen, being able to have social skills. So for
00:23:13.180
example, um, to be concrete about it, um, a typical, uh, one, I, one of the things that I found that
00:23:20.040
when I did the research for the boy crisis that I found was in no parenting magazine and no other
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parenting book was helping parents understand the difference between what I came to call mom-style
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parenting and dad-style parenting. And mom-style parenting tends to be more identifying the
00:23:37.940
children's strong points, helping the children, um, feel, um, proud of themselves because they're a
00:23:45.060
good singer or they have a good basketball skills or, you know, or they're a good scholar or whatever
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and encouraging, encouraging them to sort of pursue that. And, you know, sweetie, you want to be an
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Olympic gymnast, like you just saw, um, um, you know, uh, Simon, uh, Simona Biles, uh, be, um, yes,
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you can, you can do that. That's fine. Um, but then oftentimes the children will start to do that and
00:24:07.860
they'll get a tutor and, uh, but they won't follow through. They'll get distracted by a new video game
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if they're a male in particular, or, um, in a social engagement or somebody's birthday party,
00:24:18.420
and they're not putting in the discipline to go there. Dads are more likely to sort of require,
00:24:23.480
say, yo, listen, you want to be a best, an NBA player, or you want to be an actor or a writer
00:24:28.580
or whatever. Um, or you want to be in the Olympics, you've got to focus on that. And if we're going to
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take you to practice, and if we're going to make our investment in your time, then you've got to
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return that. Um, we're, you know, we're working overtime to be able to pay for a tutor to make sure
00:24:44.480
that you're, or a coach to get you to be better at this, this, like you want your dream
00:24:48.360
is, uh, that requires something from you. And moms will often say some version of, well, sweetie,
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you're being a little tough on, you know, um, Mary or John, they, you know, it's good for them
00:24:58.660
to go to their, their part, um, somebody's birthday party. And he says, I agree that it's good for them
00:25:04.300
to go to somebody's birthday party, but they're not going to become an Olympic gymnast if they're
00:25:09.480
going to a lot of birthday parties, because the people who are Olympic gymnasts are ones that are
00:25:13.620
focused only on that. And they make a trade-off. They give up a lot of the rest of their life
00:25:18.320
for that. And that trade-off is not necessarily healthy, but let's make a decision here. Do we
00:25:24.900
want to go for something? And, um, and you know, what level do we want to go for this at? And so
00:25:30.340
it's this type of dialogue or another example that's, I think a better example is typically speaking,
00:25:36.860
um, dads will be far more likely to rough house than moms will be. Um, you know, and the dad will
00:25:42.900
start the rough housing with the kids. Like you have three boys and a girl, right? Is that correct?
00:25:46.920
That's correct. Right. Yeah. And you might throw all three boys and the girl on the couch and, um,
00:25:52.940
and, and say, all right, the game here is to, you know, the four of you, um, you could try to pin me
00:25:57.960
down before I pin the four of you down. And, um, and the kids go, yeah, right. All right. That's a great
00:26:03.500
dad. And, you know, mom was looking on and saying, oh my God, I feel like I have just one more child
00:26:07.780
to monitor. Um, you know, and husband, our home, Dr. Literally in our home. And, um, and the, and the,
00:26:17.320
and the mom is saying to herself, okay, you know, but the kids seem to be having a lot of fun. Um,
00:26:22.460
I don't want to be controlling. I don't want to interfere too much. On the other hand, I just fear
00:26:27.000
that, um, somebody is going to get hurt sooner or later and sooner or later, she's about 99% likely
00:26:33.380
to be right. Somebody's going to get hurt. Of course, of course it's going to happen.
00:26:37.380
And, and then she's, she says to herself, no, I feel really guilty. I didn't interfere before
00:26:42.280
and prevent this from, um, from somebody getting hurt. On the other hand, at least now Ryan's
00:26:46.860
going to understand, uh, that he can't do this, um, because somebody is going to get hurt. But Ryan
00:26:51.380
doesn't understand that or he doesn't look at it that way. He says, you know, um, uh, Jimmy or, uh,
00:26:57.040
whatever one of your son's name is. Yeah. You can't stick your, um, elbow in Kathy's eye.
00:27:02.660
That's what I was thinking. Well, you shouldn't have done that. Do better next time.
00:27:05.700
Exactly. And the kids will say, yes, yes, dad, I'm sorry. No problem. I'll do better. But the next
00:27:10.360
time they don't do that much better because you've only told them to do better. There was no price to
00:27:17.320
pay if they didn't. So why do they adapt or postpone gratification if there's no price to pay by just
00:27:24.800
pushing sister or brother aside. But when most dads, the second time after the children are
00:27:31.460
warned, they, they say, okay, I gave you a warning. Now there's no more roughhousing. Now the next time
00:27:39.400
you roughhouse. And then, so dad goes ahead and says, okay, well, you know, no roughhousing tonight,
00:27:44.500
maybe tomorrow night or the next night we'll roughhouse. And mom was looking on going, oh my
00:27:48.000
God, you know, hasn't he learned his lesson after twice the kids have gotten hurt. But the, but the
00:27:53.500
important difference between dad and mom style parenting happens the third time. And that third
00:27:59.560
time, the children now know that the last time daddy said that there, if they, if they were too
00:28:06.680
aggressive or too rough, uh, they're going to lose their roughhousing. The last time daddy said that
00:28:12.520
we lost our roughhousing when we were that way. And it's now that the kids get their beginning, their
00:28:20.100
first step in postponed gratification. I want to push my brother or sister aside, but if I do that, I'm
00:28:28.180
going to lose what I really want. Um, so I have to postpone the gratification of winning immediately in a
00:28:35.700
way that is too aggressive or too unsympathetic to the children that my brothers and sisters
00:28:42.160
needs. Um, and I have to focus on doing what I need to do to get that, uh, roughhousing,
00:28:49.760
the roughhousing that we all want. Um, and so this is so, this is so, uh, one of the common
00:28:56.360
phrases I hear a lot and that's specifically directed towards the government. I think in
00:29:00.160
general is the PSYOP, right? This is a PSYOP against the American people, but, but I'm kind of
00:29:06.680
hearing you say, correct me if I'm wrong, that there's a PSYOP with, with our children too. And we
00:29:11.820
need to be aware of the game that's being played and what they're being taught outside of just the
00:29:16.400
words that we're using and the behaviors that we're trying to mold.
00:29:21.380
Exactly. And so here's the, the, that exactly what happens with that dynamic. So now the, you have
00:29:30.060
said this new dynamic of, you can't be aggressive and you have to think of your brothers and sisters
00:29:35.320
needs. And the kids are, are now saying, I'm going to, I know I'm going to lose my roughhousing if I'm
00:29:42.120
that aggressive. So I'm going to stop and I'm not going to be that aggressive. I'm going to think of
00:29:46.560
my brothers and sisters needs. Now, a number of things are happening here. The kids are, um, are,
00:29:52.100
are understanding that they have to have the postponed gratification. They also have to think of
00:29:57.720
their brothers and sisters needs. And what the data shows is that children who do this are now
00:30:04.780
required to think of their brothers and sisters needs in order to get what they want. So empathy
00:30:11.660
becomes a selfish, uh, it's in their self-interest to become empathetic. It's in their self-interest
00:30:19.100
to not be too aggressive. Um, do you think though, that when, so I wrote this question down and I know
00:30:25.540
I keep interrupting you, that's because I have a thousand questions. I've got some, I have more
00:30:29.360
questions than we have time for. So I wrote down here, putting the needs of others above our own.
00:30:34.600
So I'm hearing you say that that's a learned trait. Do you think that there's any sort of inherent
00:30:40.640
nature in putting other people's needs above our own or is that entirely learned?
00:30:47.680
It's learned. And it's also, once it's learned, there's something in our nature, which is the RCZ,
00:30:53.780
the rostral cingulate zone of our brain, that when we do something like think of others,
00:31:00.820
others give us positive feedback and that positive feedback increases the feel good drug dopamine
00:31:06.500
in our brain. And this is why I say everything is nature and nurture. It is, we have evolved over
00:31:13.960
millions of years. And if you take it back to, you know, to the evolution at the beginning,
00:31:19.060
we're talking about probably billions of years of evolution to have this enormously sophisticated
00:31:24.940
system of being able to know how to survive and to know how to survive, we had to get along with
00:31:32.580
others. The people that didn't, they usually were defeated by being too divided.
00:31:43.520
The reason I ask this is because I've been actually thinking about this today. So,
00:31:47.840
about three or four hours ago, I was sitting in my office and I was sending out emails and I heard
00:31:54.280
a crash outside of our home on the corner. The corner that we live on happens to be a pretty
00:31:58.760
dangerous intersection. I heard a crash. I knew the distinct sound. I knew exactly what had happened.
00:32:02.800
So, I ran out and I told my kids, stay here, son, you call 911. I got to run out here and do this.
00:32:08.360
And I ran out and I saw this little blue sedan that had probably traveled 40 yards after it had
00:32:16.420
gotten hit. And there was a young woman in the driver's side of the vehicle. And so,
00:32:24.800
I ran over there. I was barefoot because I just came out. I ran over there and she was bleeding
00:32:29.080
from her head and she was such, it's stuck with me for about four or five hours now. It's pretty
00:32:35.520
touching actually. Just a sweet young woman. She was probably in her late teens, early 20s. I could
00:32:42.640
tell she had a backpack and some other things. So, I think she was probably a student at the college
00:32:46.580
here. And she was bleeding from her head and just red blood had just drenched her top, a white striped
00:32:56.300
shirt that she was wearing. And, oh, I just had this, like, I just felt so bad. And so, I grabbed
00:33:05.100
some napkins. I threw them on her head. I applied pressure. I asked her what her name was. I asked
00:33:09.280
her if she was okay. And her biggest concern was, did I break the rules? That's one thing she said.
00:33:16.020
Did I break the rules of driving? I'm like, I don't know. I didn't see it, but we're going to get you
00:33:20.320
taken care of. And she's fine. She had a couple of minor lacerations on her head. She's fine.
00:33:25.480
And I thought to myself, well, you know, like I did that because that's the right thing to do.
00:33:30.660
That's what we do. That's the right thing to do. But now as you're saying this,
00:33:35.940
maybe it's not that I did it because it's the right thing to do. Maybe I did it because I feel
00:33:41.700
really good about my ability to do so. And so, maybe it's, and I'm not saying this in a bad way,
00:33:50.780
but maybe there's some selfish reasons behind it. And it's that dopamine hit or whatever it is in
00:33:57.080
our chemical makeup that makes us do what I think we all objectively would agree is the right thing to
00:34:04.000
do. Yeah, no, that's absolutely the case. And, and if you, especially if you are trained, if you are
00:34:11.680
trained to look at it that way, and you know, it's, there's a, the way we're, if we're always trained
00:34:18.600
to just think of ourselves, then we don't get the dopamine hits from doing things for others. So we
00:34:25.040
don't have that experience of being looking forward to the dopamine hits by doing something for others.
00:34:31.080
And so part of what the military does for, for, for men is to say that, you know, that it's a training
00:34:39.460
to be, to allow yourself to know that even being completely disposable, being completely dead,
00:34:48.180
you are, that you have, you have served, that you've done something for others. And that's,
00:34:54.280
that's even worth your life. And I mean, it's one of the reasons why, you know, and so that begins
00:35:01.040
to get programmed into you. And it also, these things lead to other fascinating dynamics between
00:35:08.700
moms and dads. We were talking before about the roughhousing and, and, and, you know, and you're,
00:35:13.680
you mentioned something about, you know, that when you say something like that, that dad, that the
00:35:20.860
children oftentimes obey, or maybe I suggested that, I don't know. And, but moms will oftentimes
00:35:27.140
looking at this, that situation of, you know, you, you say, okay, you can't be too aggressive now
00:35:32.480
and you're, you can't, you know, do this to your brother or your sister. And moms will often look on
00:35:37.620
and say, after this has developed, the relationship has developed with your kids. I don't get this.
00:35:43.080
I tell the kids the same thing that Ryan tells the kids, but they respond to me better. I don't know
00:35:50.940
whether it's his deeper voice or he's bigger or what the story is, but it's, but what the findings
00:35:56.520
show is that it's not Ryan's deeper voice or that he's bigger. That is that, that, that when you tell
00:36:03.500
kids to behave a certain way, and there's no consequence, if they don't behave that way, or you
00:36:10.060
suggest a consequence, but then you give them another chance and another chance. The kids will keep
00:36:15.220
taking that other chance until they exhaust, exhaust the, the energy of the mom. And then the mom will
00:36:21.920
oftentimes, so, so that there's no downside in not paying attention to the mom. There is a downside
00:36:29.660
in not paying attention to the dad when dad is a good boundary enforcer. Now, sometimes, sometimes this
00:36:34.960
is reversed. The mom is the boundary enforcer and the dad isn't. And sometimes both are good boundary
00:36:40.360
enforcers and sometimes both are bad boundary enforcers. But as a rule, this is the, this is a
00:36:46.920
difference in what I call dad style parenting and mom style parenting. And so what I started talking
00:36:52.200
about in the boy crisis book is all those differences and all the misunderstandings between
00:36:59.020
moms and dads that come from not understanding those differences. And then once you understand those
00:37:05.740
differences, how to do what leads children to having the best upbringing, which is not to do dad style
00:37:12.540
parenting or mom style parenting only, but to do checks and balance parenting and checks and balance
00:37:18.300
parenting requires really good communication and respect from the mom about dad style parenting and
00:37:24.580
its contribution and from the dad about mom style parenting and its respective contribution. And so that
00:37:30.860
is, and so that is a core part of the boy crisis book is how to communicate the best intent. But most dads
00:37:40.780
don't know that they can say to moms, you know, the data shows that when I require the children to think of
00:37:48.900
their brothers and sisters needs, and to be assertive, but not aggressive, those children grow up more
00:37:55.280
empathetic, and they grow up more assertive, but not aggressive. And therefore, as a result of that,
00:38:01.200
they have more friends at school, because they have social skills. And the more friends at school
00:38:05.660
they have, the more less likely they are to be depressed. And, and the more motivated they are to be
00:38:11.320
good to go to school and to study well, and so on. And all of these things are connected. And when boys and
00:38:17.340
girls don't have these, particularly boys that don't have good social skills, they oftentimes become
00:38:23.360
depressed and withdraw into video games, and then become addicted to the video games, which only
00:38:28.580
makes them feel more like a player in the video games and less like a player of being able to have
00:38:39.040
Men, let me pull you away from the conversation very quickly. Obviously, we've been talking a lot
00:38:43.400
about how to serve our young men. And I can't think of a better way to do that than to have an engaged,
00:38:49.980
present father in the home. We address that in this conversation. And one of the primary roles
00:38:55.820
of a father is to introduce his son to experiences that are going to last a lifetime and ultimately
00:39:02.240
serve him well as he transitions from boy to man. And that's where the legacy experience comes in.
00:39:09.160
We've taken time tested and proven models throughout the history of mankind, and we've emulated and
00:39:16.260
extracted and built the lessons, the experiences, and ultimately the results that will unequivocally
00:39:23.660
serve your boys as they become men. Now, I just talked with our event coordinator, Chris Gatchko
00:39:27.840
yesterday, and we only have two spots remaining for our legacy. Well, our only legacy event of the
00:39:34.380
year, which is September 22nd through the 25th. So if you have a son between the ages of eight to 15,
00:39:40.220
you need to lock in one of those last two spots, September 22nd through the 25th, 2022. If you want
00:39:48.720
to learn more, you want to watch a video from our last experience, and you want to lock that in,
00:39:53.160
head to order of man.com slash legacy, order of man.com slash legacy. Do that now, or do that right
00:39:59.460
after the show. For now, let's get back to it with Dr. Farrell.
00:40:02.000
You're telling my, you are telling my story. You are telling my, I feel so selfish because all these
00:40:11.260
questions I have are directed for me. You know, let me just, let me just share. I, so my mother
00:40:17.780
primarily raised me and my sister on my own. I joined the military to your, to your statistic
00:40:24.540
earlier. She actually forced me to go play football. I wanted to play football and she said no,
00:40:30.840
because she was concerned. And two years later, she said, no, you actually have to go play football.
00:40:34.980
And I didn't want to, but she forced me to. Uh, and just this idea of social
00:40:45.340
intelligence maybe is, is the word I, I didn't have that. My friends when I was younger called me
00:40:53.480
the hermit. I was the hermit because I didn't go out because I didn't feel confident in spending time
00:40:59.560
with other boys. I had a hard time relating with other boys. Uh, and, and I've since learned,
00:41:03.940
you know, I've had to learn and develop those skills and I know that they are learned. And so
00:41:07.120
I have been able to, um, but oh my goodness, you are telling my story. This is unbelievable.
00:41:13.960
I'm, I'm, I'm very glad. Um, um, you know, it's, it's been such a joy to, um, I guess one of the
00:41:21.120
biggest joys happened recently when, uh, about six months ago or so along the lines of what we're
00:41:26.440
talking about when, um, somebody wrote to me and said that, um, that he had, um, joined, uh, he had
00:41:34.700
been raised by a single mom and, um, who was very devoted to making him happy. Um, and, um, he ended
00:41:43.380
up becoming addicted to video games and not even knowing himself as a human being, um, and began to
00:41:49.940
resent his mom because, um, she felt, um, he was, she wasn't, he wasn't being helped by her and the
00:41:57.000
antagonism between him and his mom became so great that he ended up living then with his aunts and
00:42:02.540
his grandmothers and none of them had men in their lives. Um, and so he felt like he didn't really know
00:42:08.060
how to become a man. And he had two things that he pointed out. He said, I felt I had no structure
00:42:13.680
and I had no purpose. Um, so he said, um, I ended up joining eight Chan, uh, which is a fascist
00:42:21.920
ideological group. Um, and he said there, I found structure and I found purpose. I felt like I had a,
00:42:28.460
could have an ideology that would be, um, you know, that would be superior to any other ideology I'd ever
00:42:34.020
heard of. And these people were all, you know, searching for structure like I was. And he said,
00:42:39.900
so, and they, and eight Chan had, um, nurtured two of the major mass, um, shooters, uh, that the world
00:42:46.740
has known, unfortunately. And, um, he said, so I drew up a 52 page manifesto to carry out my own mass
00:42:55.500
shooting, uh, to show the world that I was somebody that should needed to be reckoned with and paid
00:43:00.040
attention to. Wow. And he said, uh, then I don't know how I did this, but I ran across the boy crisis
00:43:06.580
book and I read it. And when I was reading it, it wasn't so much the data that was important to me,
00:43:13.520
but it felt like, um, what you just said a minute ago, like, like I was a spy in his home. He said that
00:43:21.160
you saw everything I was doing and saying and feeling and fearing that I hadn't been able to put words
00:43:27.780
to. And as, and when I finished reading that and feeling understood and having compassion toward what,
00:43:34.300
who I am, I lost the, that extra anger that it took to carry out the mass shooting. And so I was
00:43:43.740
able to then go to a couple of psychologists and a psychiatrist, one for medication and one for sort
00:43:49.300
of social help. And, um, and I want to write you and say, thank you because the boy crisis, as a result
00:43:56.880
of that, um, I, I saved my own life and save the life, uh, and indirectly you save the life of, um,
00:44:04.100
countless other, um, or spared, right? What, um, so you said with that young, I'm assuming he's a young
00:44:12.960
man, what you said that he wanted to be paid attention to. He probably wanted to be significant
00:44:19.220
in some way. It's very hard personally for me to wrap my head around this idea, but we see these mass
00:44:24.380
shootings and they're always perpetuated by young men. A lot of them lack father structures, uh,
00:44:30.160
whether it's their biological father or a father figure. Uh, a lot of them are addicted to some of
00:44:36.720
these drugs that are mainlined in their veins. And, and we don't quite know all the ramifications of
00:44:41.260
that. Do you find that that's a common theme or thread that they want to be seen? That's hard for
00:44:48.500
me to imagine, but I can't help. I can't deny that that seems to be a common thread.
00:44:55.080
Yes, um, I do. That's exactly what he said to me, but, um, looking at it in a bigger picture
00:45:01.220
framework, um, the, there has been six mass, um, school shooters in the 21st century that have killed
00:45:09.000
10 or more people, um, uh, actually seven. And we know the family backgrounds of six of them.
00:45:15.460
And of those six that we know the family backgrounds for every single one of them has, um, had, has been,
00:45:22.780
uh, deprived, what I call dad deprived, deprived of a significant involvement of it, of the biological
00:45:30.300
father. Unfortunately, the biological father is more important than the stepfather. The stepfather
00:45:36.060
can be very helpful. We can, I'd be happy to dig into how the stepfather can be helpful and what
00:45:41.480
usually prevents the stepfather from being helpful, but, um, it was the biology, it was the absence of
00:45:47.660
the biological father. That was, that was, um, uh, the factor in all those cases, the mother, the,
00:45:53.900
the boy lived with the mother and usually had an antagonistic relationship with the mother,
00:45:59.480
and then was sometimes passed on to a grandmother or an aunt, just like this boy in Uvalde. This is all
00:46:05.740
true of the boy in the last big mass shooter in Uvalde, Texas. Um, and so these, um, and so this is,
00:46:14.920
uh, and what, what, so the boy doesn't feel like he has a father creating that postponed gratification
00:46:24.220
that gives him the discipline, um, to be able to do the things he really wants to do. So I am now
00:46:31.220
communicating back and forth on zoom with this, with this, um, this potential mass shooter who is
00:46:38.360
fortunately averted. And, you know, part of what he had at the very beginning was an enormous amount of
00:46:45.060
anger toward his mom. And so I asked him to role play his mom and what her bet, what her intent was.
00:46:52.720
And when he role played his mom, he said, um, you know, he, he expressed his enormous anger toward
00:46:59.760
his mom, uh, for just letting him, um, play these video games all the time and never learning how to
00:47:05.940
be a human being in the world. And so he said to his mom, why did you do this to me? So I asked him
00:47:11.880
to role play his mom, make believe he was his mom. And she, he said as his mom, uh, because you seemed
00:47:18.600
so happy then. Um, and when I wanted you to be happy and I love you and, you know, and, and this
00:47:25.560
is the only thing that seemed to make you happy. So I didn't want to take this away from you.
00:47:29.900
And when he began to really get into that, he began to see that his mom's best intent
00:47:35.540
was his love for him, even though she didn't do what he was needed, um, to do what he needed would
00:47:44.400
have made him unhappy. Um, and so she didn't want to make him unhappy in that, um, in that desire to
00:47:52.340
give him immediate gratification. She didn't help him get the structure and the postponed gratification
00:47:58.020
that he needed from being outside of his comfort zone of being just one more figure in the video
00:48:04.360
games. I do want to talk about a couple of things. Stepfathers. I also want to talk about how to help
00:48:11.280
encourage or lead, uh, your wife, uh, when maybe she doesn't see the importance of your role as a man
00:48:20.560
in it, but when you, when you bring it up as a mother's love. And I think generally speaking,
00:48:25.960
that's probably true. What then is a woman's role in the development specifically? Let's talk about
00:48:35.420
young men. What is her role? It's just that you come from a very interesting perspective where
00:48:41.180
you, you, you spent a lot of time in the feminist movement. You spent a lot of time
00:48:45.460
with women's issues. And then more recently have spent a lot of time with focusing on young men and
00:48:52.880
the crisis of boys and masculinity in general. And so I love this perspective. I'm curious what
00:48:58.420
you believe to be the role of a mother in that dynamic of raising the boys.
00:49:05.060
Yes. Well, the boys definitely benefit from mother involvement and sort of being able to sort of,
00:49:12.220
uh, be, um, be seen by their moms for their best talents and being nurtured and having those talents
00:49:20.260
pointed out and having moms brag on them. Um, and, uh, and, and just knowing that, um, in a mom's,
00:49:26.580
um, space, they can, they feel they can say anything to the mom, uh, or the mom at least
00:49:31.840
facilitates them saying anything and, um, and always has their best interests at heart. And is usually
00:49:37.500
concerned about, you know, is, is right there to prepare a meal is to, to make sure that he has the
00:49:42.740
right clothes to wear to school and things like that. Moms contribute so much, uh, including love.
00:49:47.680
Um, but one, how does that counter though, with the 60s version of feminism and the third wave
00:49:56.860
version of feminism? Cause you just said to cook him a meal, to make sure he has the clothes. I think
00:50:01.720
that's a traditionally held notion of femininity and motherhood, but how does that juxtapose with
00:50:07.700
today's perspective of a mother and her role either in the home or community or workforce?
00:50:15.400
Yes. If she's, you know, if she's involved, first of all, it really children that do best
00:50:21.140
do have two highly involved parents. And so, uh, and men and women have a lot of flexibility and
00:50:29.740
fluidity in their, in their, in their roles. And you can have a father raise the children and do the
00:50:37.460
cooking and the, and, and so on. But statistically speaking, men and women are very flexible until they
00:50:44.260
have children. And as they have children, the overwhelm of the responsibilities usually leads
00:50:50.920
to the children, to, to moms being more likely to be in the, uh, involved with the children at home
00:50:57.600
and dads being more likely to go to the workplace. Now that's not an ad, that's not an advocacy on my
00:51:02.880
part because I actually, because children that are raised predominantly by dads do extremely well.
00:51:09.500
And one of the reasons why children raised predominantly by dads do extremely well is
00:51:13.860
because when moms raise children predominantly in the traditional sense, dads sometimes try to supply
00:51:19.640
the money. And in the process of supplying the money, they oftentimes don't pay as much attention
00:51:24.480
to the children as, as would be optimal for the children. Whereas when-
00:51:28.700
I also imagine, correct me if I'm wrong, that if a dad, if it's the dad, that's primarily raising the
00:51:33.980
children that they are by default of our current societal norms going to be exposed to women,
00:51:41.920
whether it's through the public school system or grandma's around. But if you take dad out of the
00:51:48.340
picture, the likelihood of that child, son or daughter being exposed to a fixture, a masculine
00:51:55.800
manly fixture is significantly less than the default of them being exposed to women in education
00:52:01.580
or women in some sort of nurturing role. That's exactly correct. And also to start that's correct
00:52:08.660
at every level. So the first level is that when the dad is the primary breadwinner, oftentimes in
00:52:18.720
order to be able to support the family, especially you have four children to be able to support them
00:52:22.960
in a loving way. If the dad is the primary breadwinner, the mom is largely at home taking care of the
00:52:28.060
children. The dad often keeps accepting jobs to take more and more responsibility, which take him
00:52:33.660
more and more away from home. And also like if he's a salesperson locally, when they were, when they
00:52:38.820
were single and now they have four children, he will oftentimes accept responsibilities to be that
00:52:43.800
salesperson nationally. And so that will take him away from home for weekends and so on. And whereas
00:52:49.560
the mom is less likely to be willing to take those jobs that take her away nationally. And so she can be
00:52:58.100
there for the children's recital, she can be there for the children's birthday party and so on. And so
00:53:03.640
there's a tendency for when the mother is the primary caretaker for the children not to have as much of
00:53:12.620
dad as they need. Whereas when the dad is the primary caretaker, mom is more likely to still
00:53:18.780
remain involved and not take job responsibilities that lead her to break the glass ceiling, but be
00:53:27.580
away from the children too often. And it's one of the reasons why women who are mothers very rarely
00:53:33.160
break glass ceilings unless they have a full-time dad taking care of the children, or they have a full-time
00:53:40.240
nanny, but the children raised by full-time nannies as opposed to full-time dads do not tend to do as
00:53:46.820
well or feel as loved and secure as the children raised by a combination of dad and mom.
00:53:54.060
So tough question, potentially politically incorrect. What would you then suggest to a man who is looking for
00:54:04.900
a lifelong partner and a female? What do the statistics say about a woman who would like to be
00:54:12.320
in the career and pursue a career versus a woman who would like to pursue being a homemaker and finds
00:54:20.320
value in being at home and raising her children and potentially homeschooling her children and that
00:54:24.460
sort of thing? Does that have the play on who we should look to to partner with?
00:54:30.080
Yes. And it depends on who's, rather than it be the traditional way of, you know, of have mom be
00:54:38.180
homemaker and dad be breadwinner. One of the things that we really need to work with our daughters on
00:54:44.140
is to understand that if she wants to be a have-it-all woman, if she wants to break glass
00:54:49.480
ceilings, if she wants to, if she's motivated by her career and those types of challenges, and she also
00:54:57.180
wants to have a happy marriage, a happy marriage, and also have children that are raised well,
00:55:03.480
then what she needs to look for is a man whose propensities are being more of a nurturer connector
00:55:13.260
rather than a provider protector. And, but the, but in order for that to work, the woman has to respect
00:55:21.760
the man for being in that role. Marriages in which men are the primary caretaker fall apart
00:55:30.760
if the man does not feel that she respects the man for being the primary caretaker.
00:55:41.760
No, that is not. Usually not. It is an effort. It is a training. It is a conscious selection process.
00:55:52.440
And women are very much more likely to be at work. And then somebody who's really an outstanding
00:56:00.000
person at work, they have respect for that person. And they're likely to pull away and
00:56:05.400
feelings of attraction to that person. The father will pick it up, pick up that energy, pick up,
00:56:12.040
you know, maybe go to a Christmas party or a holiday party. And, and we'll start seeing the
00:56:17.920
connection between his wife and that man that's more successful. And that, then that will lead to
00:56:23.260
anger and so on. And the woman will feel, well, gee, you're so insecure. And then that will, you know,
00:56:28.720
that will go down a sliding slope of negativity, which is what, one of the reasons why two things
00:56:34.380
are so important is helping women understand that this is the type of, if you have the type of personality
00:56:41.360
that wants to be a habitable woman, you can suggest, you can't allow yourself to fall in love with another
00:56:48.620
superstar type of male and raise children. You can do that if you don't want to raise children.
00:56:54.540
But if you want to raise children and you want to have something other than a nanny take care of the
00:56:58.480
children and, and, and you want your children to feel as internally secure as possible and to feel
00:57:04.120
the love of their mother and father, that in selecting all of this, one has to always remember
00:57:09.840
that a child looks in the mirror and the child when she or he looks in the mirror is half the mother
00:57:16.360
and half the father. And they sense that, I have the, I have the, you know, that thick, beautiful hair
00:57:22.780
of my father. I have my, this quality of my mom. And, you know, and if you're, and if either one of
00:57:28.900
them are not around to love them and, and, but the nanny is wonderful. They, they don't feel the
00:57:35.720
connection from the nanny that is that, that, that is that half of them. And this is not because nannies
00:57:43.280
are bad. It's because the children need to feel that, that, that connection to the biological dad and the
00:57:49.940
biological mom, which is why even though stepdads can be helpful. It's rare that the stepdad is as
00:57:56.860
when I wrote, you know, the boy crisis book and a book before that on this issue. And I was a
00:58:02.500
stepfather. I sent this to the draft of the book to the biological father. He was impacted by it enough
00:58:09.580
to move back from 500 miles away from the children to, to be more with the children, because he saw that
00:58:16.820
it wasn't Warren Farrell stepdad that was really needed by the children. Um, yes, he has all these
00:58:23.580
sort of nurture connector skills, but it makes less difference than, than it does to the children to
00:58:30.140
have me, him, uh, with, with, with them. So I, I take a little bit of an issue with this phrase that
00:58:37.840
you've used of the have it all woman. Yes. I just, I just don't think that's possible. I think,
00:58:44.660
and help, let's talk about this. Let's hash this out a little bit to the degree that we can. I just,
00:58:49.360
when we say that basically what we're telling women is that you can go out and you can pursue
00:58:54.980
this incredible career and you can make partner and you can run this fortune 500 company and you
00:59:01.500
can be the best possible mother. And I just don't think that's the case the same way as a father
00:59:06.660
though, too. I, I, I recognize that although I work at home and I try to be as active as possible,
00:59:12.800
like as I can in my kid's life, there is a sacrifice that I have to make. And I think
00:59:17.740
generally speaking, based on what I've seen, men are more prone to make that sacrifice and women,
00:59:24.620
especially as you get older and, and potentially lose some of their childbearing years, start to hold
00:59:30.600
some regrets and some animosity about some decisions regarding being this quote unquote,
00:59:37.580
have it all type woman. Yes. I actually agree with you. Um, when, uh, if you're a, but, but there's,
00:59:47.320
there's a degree issue here. Um, when women have children, um, and they, they're, they want to have
00:59:54.280
really good careers. They can do that if they are prioritizing their being home for their children
01:00:01.760
and with their children. Um, and so the, but that prioritization of being home with and for their
01:00:09.620
children usually will prevent them from being, from breaking a glass ceiling of being a CEO of a
01:00:16.420
significant company. Um, and if they are a CEO of a significant company, oftentimes that priority of
01:00:24.440
being with their children will begin to get lost in the shuffle. And so you're, you're absolutely right.
01:00:30.800
But you, but have it all in that looser sense of, I want a career and a career is really inspiring to
01:00:39.080
me. Um, as long as you're not, as long as you are also prioritizing the, you know, when there's a
01:00:45.200
conflict between the children and the career, there's enough flexibility there to be with the
01:00:50.000
children to a greater degree. Um, even though the children may have to occasionally miss the mom for
01:00:54.980
this reason or that reason. And a certain amount of that is not bad, but too much of that goes the other
01:01:00.360
way. Um, but that does usually prevent the woman from being have it all in the sense of being a CEO
01:01:07.720
of a significant corporation or doing a startup, uh, that requires usually an enormous amount of time
01:01:14.560
in the early years. Um, so you're absolutely right there. Yeah. I just, I, and, and I, and I'm not
01:01:20.680
putting this just on, I put this on myself. I think about my business. There's been many times
01:01:24.820
where I've throttled the business. Um, maybe there was an opportunity to go speak in public
01:01:31.140
that I could have made five or six figures in the pursuit of doing, and I've decided,
01:01:35.640
thank you, but no, thank you. Yes. They're just choices. And to say that we can have it all
01:01:42.180
is a bit of a misnomer. You can have anything, but you can't have all of it.
01:01:46.540
Yes. If you're taking it, this is a thing of degree. If you're, if you want a career
01:01:52.780
while you're raising children that, and you define have it all that way, that is possible.
01:01:58.980
If you have the father at home helping to raise the children, and particularly if there's less
01:02:05.640
danger as a mom, mom, that you will get carried away because there's less identity. Um, in for,
01:02:13.400
for women, there's less identity and going around saying I'm a CEO because you, you, and if you have
01:02:19.560
children, there'll also be lots of people questioning your, the amount of involvement you have with your
01:02:24.880
children. Whereas you're, if you're a dad and you're a CEO, there's, there's, there's the people
01:02:31.620
will often stop with the admiration for your being that CEO and not take you to, you know, what's your
01:02:37.800
relationship with your children like. And so we, as people, as supporters of healthy children, um, we, we need
01:02:46.280
to be able to make sure that we are, um, talking with fathers and mothers about, um, what's your
01:02:52.740
connection to your children. And in that, in that framework, here's an important thing. Um, once your
01:02:59.080
family has, depending on where in the United States you live, between 50 and $80,000 worth of income for a
01:03:07.540
family of four, once your family has that amount of income per year for a family of four, um, the,
01:03:16.120
the children benefit more from dad's time than dad's dime.
01:03:22.960
Hmm. What was the amount? What did, what amount did you say time versus dime? I like that.
01:03:27.700
Yes. Um, uh, between 50 and 80,000, depending on where in the United States you live, obviously,
01:03:32.480
you know, to live in Maine is a lot less expensive than living, um, you know, in San, in San Francisco
01:03:38.260
or New York city. Sure. Sure. So, um, but, but, um, the children very rarely go to therapists and say,
01:03:46.760
I wish my father or mother spent more money on me. Yes. I imagine that doesn't get brought up a whole
01:03:55.560
lot. No, no. And, and, and, and many people are likely to say, you know, we, we came from a poor
01:04:01.560
background, but I had a lot of love for my mom and dad. And, um, and that allowed me to be resilient
01:04:07.780
or to, to, you know, to get through a lot of things in life and it wasn't so bad. And I appreciate this
01:04:13.720
and that as a result of not having so much money. Yeah. That's a good point. Even in my own, again,
01:04:18.980
anecdotally, you know, some, there were stretches months at a time where, you know, I just didn't see
01:04:25.640
my mom a whole lot and it wasn't because she was out doing her thing. It was because she was
01:04:29.640
working two and three jobs at a time to make sure I never had to question whether it was food on the
01:04:34.080
table or a roof overhead and looking back on it now. And I think, you know, there's probably a lot
01:04:40.300
of nights where my mom was in her bedroom by herself alone, crying herself to sleep and never
01:04:49.480
making a sound that me or my sister could hear. Yeah. Yeah. I would, I would, I would bet you are
01:04:59.640
right. I think there's a big element to what you're talking about, about here with just knowing
01:05:05.800
yourself, right? Knowing what you want, knowing what you're after, and then being willing to make
01:05:10.600
those trades. But I am very interested as we, as we get closer to time here, um, what you would
01:05:18.980
suggest to a man, maybe it's a, uh, uh, a first time marriage, maybe it's a second or third marriage
01:05:27.180
with stepchildren and stepfather situation so that a man could help get his wife on board with
01:05:35.640
understanding his contribution. Although she may not fully understand his contribution to the
01:05:42.080
dynamic of the marriage and the dynamic of raising children. Yes. Very good. Very important question.
01:05:47.800
The most important single thing I can suggest is go to the chapter in the boy crisis, where I talk
01:05:53.800
about the differences between dad style parenting and mom style parenting and, and fill yourself
01:06:01.480
yourself with why your style parenting, your likelihood to tease more, your likelihood to
01:06:07.940
encourage the kids to take risks more. You're likely to, to be okay with the children failing
01:06:12.920
more. You're likelihood to be willing to roughhouse more. You're likely to, to do, um, the sports and
01:06:18.580
activities with the children, um, in which you actually participate, uh, your likelihood to beat the
01:06:24.100
children at the sport when they're not focusing enough and letting them cry and come out the other
01:06:29.600
side of that and still knowing that you were there for them. Dozens of things like that, um, are
01:06:35.560
differences between dad and mom style parenting on average. Again, sometimes it's reversed. And then
01:06:40.800
once you get those under your belt, do not treat them as this makes my style parenting better, but rather
01:06:48.360
that this is a contribution that I offer. And let's talk about your contribution and let's put, let's get
01:06:54.900
the best of both worlds together. So the children want to climb a tree. Mom feels it's too dangerous.
01:07:00.860
Um, maybe in a few years, dad feels it's not so dangerous. Um, you know, the child should be let,
01:07:06.540
allowed to climb the tree and mom and dad negotiate. Okay. The child can climb the tree, but not be past a
01:07:12.360
certain point. And dad, you have to be out underneath the tree without your cell phone to, uh, falls out of
01:07:21.240
the tree. Right. Um, so you can, you can cushion the child and then, but dad has to know that climbing
01:07:28.080
that tree increases risks. Um, risk is, is riskier and risk taking and knowing what risk to take and
01:07:35.640
what risks not to take actually develops synapses in a child's brain, uh, connects them that increases
01:07:42.560
a child's intelligence IQ, literally IQ. And there's, there's so much evidence to show that dad style
01:07:51.380
parenting has something to offer. But to this day, I've never heard a dad say, you know, sweetie,
01:07:56.980
I'd like to do some roughhousing with the kids because I think it'll make them more empathetic.
01:08:03.660
Yeah. It's so counterintuitive and moms can't hear what dads don't say. And on the other hand,
01:08:09.620
dads, um, um, need to also listen to what mom's contributions are, you know, what the contribution
01:08:16.320
of making sure that the child has you under the tree when she or he potentially falls and that
01:08:21.660
you're not focused on your cell phone. You're focused on the child, um, falling in your, but
01:08:25.480
on the other hand, that you're not child telling the child everything to do, um, you know, what to
01:08:30.820
do and what not to do as a mom is more likely to do. No, sweetie, don't go there. Uh, the dad is
01:08:35.860
more likely to sit, let the child go there and learn from making a mistake that that was not the
01:08:42.060
place she or he should have gone to. And so all of these things have are balancing acts. So once
01:08:49.000
you understand, now let's say, let me spend a moment with a, with a mom who's a single mom,
01:08:53.320
like your mom was. Um, and so what to do if you are a single mom and you don't have that dad to
01:09:00.000
balance this, uh, number one, ask yourself the question, can you get the biological dad involved
01:09:07.060
again? And if the answer is no, ask yourself a second question of, um, uh, no man well enough
01:09:14.680
to know that when men feel needed, wanted and valued, they almost always appear. Think every
01:09:26.260
generation had its war. When uncle Sam said, we need you to be willing to die so others can be saved
01:09:37.520
and live. Every generation of men stepped forward with so when they were told they were needed,
01:09:44.460
they were willing to die to serve just like, um, like I doubtless you did in the military. And so the,
01:09:53.720
and so if you tell a dad, I have learned what the value of your dad style parenting is. I didn't
01:10:03.100
understand that before the children need this to be part of their life in balance with me. I want to
01:10:10.600
be able to do good communication training with you so I can hear your contribution and have you hear
01:10:16.720
my contribution. I do couples communication workshops all around the country exactly for this
01:10:21.840
reason. If you know, you don't have good communication, you tend to get a divorce. You
01:10:26.400
don't have, you get a divorce. There tends to be less father involvement, less father involvement.
01:10:31.480
There tends to be a boy crisis. They're all connected. And so the first job is to see if you can get the
01:10:37.760
biological dad involved. If you can't get the biological dad involved, um, make sure your children are
01:10:44.180
involved with the liberal arts of sports, which is basically team sports, pickup team sports and
01:10:51.760
individual sports like gymnastics that contribute to a team, but there's a lot of focus on discipline.
01:10:56.860
Um, and then make sure you make contact with the male coaches of your, for your sons to make sure
01:11:03.200
that the end for your daughters to make sure that the, the, the female and your daughter and son
01:11:08.160
has somebody in their life, um, who can, can be, can care for them. That's male, but that's particularly
01:11:15.840
important for your son, because if you're a female and, and he's a male and he has no, um, option of
01:11:22.320
another male role model that leaves him, um, going, going oftentimes, um, from a home to a school with very
01:11:30.260
few female role models. And there's usually not a diversity of male role models at school. Even there's
01:11:36.160
usually a small number, and most of them are nurturer connector type of men rather than provider protector
01:11:42.280
men. Or coaches. And if you're not playing sports, you're not going to be introduced to them.
01:11:47.140
Exactly. Exactly. And so, um, also make sure you get your children involved with faith-based communities.
01:11:52.620
And no matter what your faith is, make sure the, the person, the priest, the rabbi, the, um,
01:11:58.740
the minister or the imam, uh, that he, uh, organizes your son into, um, small groups with other boys his
01:12:06.660
age in which the boys learn to express their feelings confidentially to each other. So your boy sees that
01:12:13.660
his insecurities are not the, uh, are, are not, um, abnormal, that they're not, they're not his alone.
01:12:20.700
And so just spend time, um, in the boy crisis book, looking at all the things you can do to, um, to get
01:12:28.720
your son to have, uh, a stepfather involved, uh, involving a stepfather does not mean your son is
01:12:36.660
going to get the benefits of a stepfather. Learn the difference between the, the multiple types of
01:12:42.000
involvements of a stepfather so that, that allow the stepfather not to be just an advisor that's
01:12:48.280
powerless, but to have an equal balance of power with you, um, even as a stepfather.
01:12:55.480
I have so many more notes. I think we're going to have to do another one if you're open to it.
01:13:01.180
Cause I, I, a couple of things that I want to talk more about with you at a, at a future date is
01:13:07.580
issues like same sex marriage. Um, you know, uh, if there's a boy crisis, is there a girl crisis in,
01:13:18.020
in the lack of fatherhood? I, I got so, I got so many questions. So if you're open to it,
01:13:25.180
I'd love to have another conversation, but this has just been so valuable and I've always appreciated
01:13:29.800
our talks and of course your wisdom. And, um, I heard you on, uh, Jordan Peterson's podcast,
01:13:35.420
several, I think several weeks or a month or so ago, I read your book. Um, I haven't read any of
01:13:41.560
your others. Maybe I need to pick up a few of your others. I've only read the boy crisis,
01:13:44.900
but I've been so enlightened and it's really helped me be a better parent, a better father
01:13:49.240
for my children and leader in the community as well. Oh, thank you very much. I really appreciate
01:13:54.180
that. And so, um, and I, you, you ask great questions, you are personal, you connect to your
01:14:01.000
real life. Um, I assume, and then you listen really well. And so it's just a pleasure, um,
01:14:06.520
um, being interviewed by you and interviewing a little bit, interviewing you as well.
01:14:10.960
Yeah. You asked me some good questions as well. Is there any way good, good, good. I'd love to do
01:14:18.480
that. Is there anywhere that you would direct the guys who are listening to be able to connect with
01:14:22.740
you? Obviously pick up a copy of the boy crisis, uh, any other resources or directions you could
01:14:27.680
give them in? Yes. One thing is I've, I've gotten a lot of positive feedback to the audible version of
01:14:33.480
the boy crisis from a lot of people who are, if you do commuting or you do, um, you know, you're on a
01:14:38.980
treadmill and stuff, doing exercises, uh, often listening to the audible version is, um, very much
01:14:44.500
easier. Um, if you're a reader of the, the, the print version has the value of, um, having all the
01:14:50.300
800 footnotes in the back and to be able to go over it a little bit more easily in that way. So,
01:14:55.580
um, don't shy away from whatever style allows you to learn the best. Uh, the boy crisis,
01:15:01.900
Amazon has it on sale now, but if you're, you know, if you have enough money, just support your local
01:15:06.960
bookstore, um, and, and that. Excellent. Well, we'll sync everything up. We'll let the guys know
01:15:12.300
and Dr. Farrell, again, I appreciate you. Thank you for what you do. You're, you're, and I talked
01:15:18.340
about this, your background is just so diverse and so distinct that I think it gives you a power that
01:15:23.120
a lot of us may not quite have because we haven't seen it from both sides of the equation and you
01:15:28.480
certainly have. So really appreciate you taking some time with us today. Thank you. It's been a real
01:15:33.100
pleasure, um, working with you and talking with you. There you go, man. I hope you enjoyed the
01:15:40.520
conversation as much as I did. What a powerful, powerful discussion. And, uh, as you heard in
01:15:45.760
the podcast, I'm going to be bringing this gentleman back on because we need to, I've got
01:15:50.060
about 17,000 other questions that I need to ask Dr. Farrell. And, uh, if you have any interest
01:15:57.460
in figuring out how I can get your questions answered, then make sure to connect with me
01:16:03.080
on the socials, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and let me know, Hey, I want to hear from Dr.
01:16:08.440
Farrell about X, Y, and Z. I want to hear from Joe Schmo about A, B, and C. I want to hear from
01:16:12.780
whoever it is that you want to hear from and what you want to hear. And I will do my best to give
01:16:18.560
you a voice on this podcast by asking your thoughtful questions. Uh, in the meantime, guys,
01:16:25.320
please connect with Dr. Farrell on Instagram and also Twitter connect with me there. Take a
01:16:30.460
screenshot. Also do me a favor. If you have a father of boys in your life, who, you know, that
01:16:36.900
could be potentially your father. Uh, that could be a friend, a neighborhood or not a neighborhood,
01:16:44.920
excuse me, a neighbor, a relative, whoever it might be. And you think they need to hear this
01:16:48.980
conversation. Please just take a screenshot, send the link over. This is how we do a grassroots
01:16:53.780
movement to build this organization up and ultimately to serve you guys and serve the
01:16:58.660
young men of our community and nation. All right, you guys, you have your marching orders. Make sure
01:17:04.100
you check out originusa.com for their new hunt line. Uh, check out our legacy experience,
01:17:09.760
order of man.com slash legacy, and then do your part by sharing, leaving your ratings and reviews
01:17:14.660
goes a very long way. We'll be back tomorrow until then go out there, take action and become the man
01:17:20.120
you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take
01:17:25.400
charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order