Recently I caught myself thinking that boys do not play an analogue of the game “Daughters-Mothers”. They can join this game with girls. I often observed this when I worked in kindergarten. There they choose the appropriate roles of dad, brothers or uncle. But I have never seen boys initiate such a game. Many times I have noticed that girls play dad in the game. At the same time, it’s hard for me to imagine a boy pretending to be his mother, although maybe this has happened somewhere. In modern society, women who play a male role are treated more loyally by those around them than men who do “feminine” things. The “tomboy” girl is a fairly common phenomenon, and it is not particularly condemned. There are even many beloved characters, for example, Pippi Longstocking. Or a number of cartoon princesses: in “Brave”, the main character carries a bow and arrow, in “Shrek” Fiona knows how to fight, in “The Little Mermaid” Ariel is very restless and her father scolds her for inappropriate behavior, while being touched by her. There are many strong women in Russian folklore: Marya the Artisan, Marya Morevna and other tales about the rich man. I can continue endlessly. At the same time, it is very difficult for me to remember works in which male characters would be helped by emotional sensitivity, tenderness, beauty and other traits that usually characterize women. We tell boys in childhood: “you are a future man, an intercessor” and things like that. But we are not saying that you are a future father and husband. We tell girls: “learn to cook, you will feed your husband,” etc. We have been raising a mother and wife since childhood. Looking at the whole picture, it turns out that we teach girls to be mothers, wives, strong and active women, while being gentle and caring. We approach education comprehensively. But we don’t teach boys to be fathers and husbands. Your own fathers should teach this, but what if they don’t exist? It’s good if a grandfather or uncle takes on this role. Or the father of the family is not active in the educational process. And it turns out that culture doesn’t really help with this either. I often hear phrases like: “the wife takes care of the children,” much less often, “the husband takes care of the sons,” or from a man, “I went fishing with my son.” It doesn’t matter where I went, the main thing is that we spent time together. And a complete exception to the rule are the words of dads, for example: “My daughter and I rode bicycles yesterday.” That is, the mother’s position is very developed, but where is the father’s position? I know for sure that many men want to be dads, but don’t know how. Their fathers were not their fathers, they were “breadwinners”, mother’s husbands, but not fathers. The role of father in the life of every child is very important. My dad showed me this importance in parenting. He was my friend throughout my childhood and remains so to this day. Thanks to our joint games, I learned to communicate with boys, and then I needed this in relationships with men. And of course, his invaluable advice about how the world works, women see it differently and the male gaze helps out in many ways. I would like the parents who read this article to think about whether their presence in the child’s life is enough? Will their child grow up with a desire to be friends with elderly parents, and not just not care for out of necessity. Let's raise our sons to be loving husbands and fathers, and our daughters to be wise mothers and wives. If you need advice from a professional psychologist on family issues or child-parent relationships, then contact me through this resource, or leave a request on my personal website: http://zavgorodneva.ru