A Song, A Question… and the World We’re Teaching Our Sons. Raising Boys with Emotional Awareness

It was a simple question.

My son was watching a YouTube short and a song kept playing in the background. Labour by Paris Paloma.

He turned to me and said, “Mum, why do I hear this song so much? It's on so many videos.”

I paused for a moment.

Because how do you explain something like that to a ten year old boy, without placing the weight of the world on his shoulders?

So I softened it.

I asked him if he knew what it meant. Of course, he didn’t.

And in that moment I realised, this is what they don’t teach in school.

I told him that men and women are different, but not in the way the world sometimes makes it seem.

That women carry life. We feel deeply. We often think about the whole, the family, the children, the future.

And men. Men are incredible at bringing things into form. They act, build, protect and move energy outward.

Not better. Not worse. Just different expressions of being human.

I told him that for a long time things haven’t been in balance.

That women haven’t always been given the same voice, the same choices or the same opportunities.

That even in my lifetime things have shifted. Women being able to vote, access financial independence, have a voice in ways previous generations couldn’t. And that change didn’t come easily.

I didn’t go into everything.

I didn’t speak about power or control in a heavy way.

But I did tell him this.

There were times in history where women were feared for their intuition, their wisdom, their connection to nature and many were punished for it.

Not because they were dangerous, but because they were powerful in ways that weren’t understood. I even mentioned the witch trials, something he’s familiar with, just to help him place it into context in a way he could gently understand.

And I also told him this, because it felt important in this moment we’re living in.

That although we are seeing big things in the news right now, things that can feel confusing or heavy, there is no need to be afraid.

Sometimes things have to fall away and they can look a little scary before they get better.

Sometimes old systems that are no longer working begin to crumble, not to harm us, but to make space for something new.

And we are living in a time where a lot is changing.

I told him he is safe. That he doesn’t need to carry it all. That his job is simply to be a child, to grow, to feel, and to become a kind and conscious man.

That's where our conversation ended.

I want to share more with you, the reader.

This isn’t just about women.

Men are hurting too.

Right now in Australia, men are dying by suicide at significantly higher rates than women. Around three to four times higher. On average, about seven men every day.

And that matters.

Because when something is out of balance, everyone feels it.

So we ask, what are men carrying?

The pressure to provide. To stay strong. To not feel too much. To hold everything together.

And where does that leave them when they can’t?

I don’t want my boys to feel blamed.

I don’t want them to feel like they need to shrink to make space for women.

And I don’t want them to grow up disconnected from their own hearts.

I want them to know this.

Women are powerful. Men are powerful. And the world works best when both are honoured.

When my boys are hurt or scared, they call out for me. Their mumma.

Not because their dad isn’t capable, he is. He’s an incredible man, partner and father.

But there is something instinctual. Something ancient.

The need to be held. To be soothed. To return to safety.

And that doesn’t make women better. It speaks to something deeply human.

On March 24, 2026, Israeli and Palestinian mothers came together in Rome for what was called the Mothers’ Call for Peace. A movement led by Reem Al-Hajajreh and Yael Admi. Women who chose to stand side by side, hand in hand, barefoot, as mothers first… as a living embodiment of peace.

And the footage is incredible to witness. These mothers holding hands. Not as Jews or Muslims, not as sides, but simply as mothers. Women who just want the hate to end, who are united in their longing for peace, and for the unnecessary loss of life to stop.

They described it as “a way to reconnect with the land that has absorbed both blood and tears, to feel the pain that unites mothers everywhere, and the earth that sustains us all.”

And something in me softened when I read and watched that. (I urge you to watch the incredible, heartfelt footage on YouTube as for some unknown reason, this wasn't 'newsworthy' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KrbWygWTfg)

Because this is what the world is craving.

Not dominance. Not division.

But remembrance.

We are not here to swing the pendulum the other way.

We are here to bring it back to centre.

To raise sons who can feel. To raise daughters who can lead. To create a world where neither has to apologise for who they are.

Our children are the turning point.

Not someday. Now.

And maybe it starts with something as simple as a question about a song, and a mother choosing to answer with truth, with softness, and with hope.

Lots of love, Steph xx