Why are parents even involved at the college level??? They are adults! (Unless it is a student with a certain level of special needs, then I get it...)

Childless spinster and high school teacher here. Thank you for helping try to break them of those habits.

I learned the term “lawnmower” parent--mowing the way forward FOR your kids--and that’s really described my experience with college kids and their parents, especially but not exclusively, boys.

I am an academic advisor who often mediates conflict (on the student side) between kids and faculty. Both men and women are ALWAYS more keyed up about professors from underrepresented backgrounds and it’s completely subconscious. They assume the worst, debase their credentials, etc. It SUCKS. We always have to really…

But sets of grandparents were so confused when I wouldn’t them buy my daughter tiny pink kitchens and vacuums. There is no need to so aggressively gender children at such a young age. Let them figure out who they who to be.

This is so succinct and pithy. I’m’a quote you for sure.

No, this was push back against victim blaming, people who were blaming women for getting raped because they were drunk. The argument isn’t that women should be allowed to get drunk so they could misbehave, it was that women should be allowed to get drunk and not have to worry about getting raped.

But it’s much more often guys. And the argument, and one with which I agree, is that how a woman behaves or dresses does not in any way affect her right not to be assaulted. 

This is a total non sequitur. “Women should be able to get drunk and not get sexually assaulted” does not imply “women should be able to get drunk and sexually assault people”.

This is the worst. I also saw something on Instagram recently where a “#boymom” posted a picture of her holding her son and the caption read “Girls love their moms. But boys are IN LOVE with their moms. So blessed to be a #boymom”. Which...has such strange, vaguely like, sexual undertones to it? Or am I reading too…

Yes. When little Jayden pushes Brynnleigh over, he can’t help it! He’s just go SO MUCH ENERGY, you know??? 

I also sometimes see it as a sexist brag. Not always. But even some of the women quoted here are acting superior for having boys? Like not understanding “little men” is a weird flex? Granted, it’s not new that having boys is more celebrated than having girls. Just sad that women partake in it. 

Ugh. The 'boys will be boys' bullshit is why I rarely see my brother. Him and his wife had 3 boys in rapid succession and they are nightmares when I comes to behavior. What is worse is that they give me shit for scolding their boys when they do stuff like throwing stuff at me or trying to punch me.

As a Russian, my eyes got very big when I read the name Tina Kandelaki. She was(is?) this huge media personality, TV presenter etc in Russia in the 2000s. So, hmm, this is gonna get some traction over here probably.

Alternatively:

Your kids sound pretty cool, as does your momming style.

“#Boymom is the precursor to ‘Boys will be boys.’”

as a parent i am thankful that heretofore i have never heard of any of this stuff

Pretty much. At work I’ve noticed the ‘boymom’ shirts means ‘I’m just going to let my kid do whatever he wants because well, he’s a boy! Shrug! What you gonna do?!’

YES. And I guarantee that every #boymom who says “well, my son has lots of energy/likes playing with toy trucks/makes fart jokes” because he’s a boy also uses that justification to excuse behavior that ranges from totally normal for a child that age (meltdowns and tantrums happen), to totally abnormal but justifiable,…