Jennifer Fink

1 week ago | buildingboys.substack.com | Jennifer Fink

“No group of teenagers is more feared than a pack of teenage boys.” That’s a famous quote by author bell hooks and I’ve seen and experienced the truth of it time & again.

1 week ago | buildingboys.substack.com | Jennifer Fink

One of the (very many!) things that I learned parenting 4 sons is that lack of motivation is VERY COMMON among tween & teenage boys. VERY common. As in, you are almost certainly not the only parent in your friend group or neighborhood who is currently worried about your son’s lack of apparent concern for his homework, future, or chores. In fact, parental concerns about boys’ motivation are so common that Janet Allison & I just recorded 3 short ON BOYS podcast episodes about boys & motivation.

2 weeks ago | buildingboys.substack.com | Jennifer Fink

Intentional manipulationPredatory behavior for personal gainEmotional blackmailSeduce, influence, dominateWait, this can’t be me… Those words are from the opening pages of Groomed, a new novel by Jody Paschal. They are the internal thoughts of Mylo, the main character, a 50-year-old man who is realizing, many years after the fact, that he was sexually groomed by an adult woman when he was a teenager.

3 weeks ago | buildingboys.substack.com | Jennifer Fink

Helping boys can be as simple as playing games with them. Making time for them. Showing an interest in their interests. Amid all the Adolescence-related furor this week, I ran across a sweet article about Grandpas volunteering with kids. From the article:Every couple of weeks, a small group of Grandpas United members s…Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to Building Boys Bulletin to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

4 weeks ago | buildingboys.substack.com | Jennifer Fink

It’s been two weeks and approximately 847 think-piece articles since Adolescence debuted on Netflix. (Yes, I made that number up. But as someone who tracks news about boys, I can tell you: It’s a lot. See the articles I’ve linked below In The News. Every single one of them is Adolescence-related.) I typically welcome …Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to Building Boys Bulletin to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.