Customer Reviews
Made me want a daughter! - By: Mozzie, 08 Mar 2008 
I felt completely depressed when pregnant with my second son when I read this book! Mr Biddulph basically tells you that, as a mother, you are important to your sons till they reach five, then you can basically forget it, as you will always be of secondary importance to them compared to their fathers & you should just get on with doing their laundry & cooking them the odd meal or two!
I'm sure he is right to a certain degree but, after speaking to many people after reading this, it is a huge generalisation to say that most men worship their fathers & take their mothers for granted.
Also, he could really have written one chapter instead of a whole book as the central message is repeated again & again: "Male children need strong male role models"
Very good, Steve, but this book didn't answer many of my questions or offer me practical advice as a mother of boys & left me wanting to have daughters!
Since tossing itin the recycling bin, I am now loving being mum to two boys & would not change them for anything!
Useful - By: Mrs. K. A. Wheatley, 25 Feb 2008 
I have read The Secrets of Happy Children by Biddulph, & found it extremely useful, so having a small boy on my hands decided me to investigate Raising Boys. I was not disappointed.
What I like most about Biddulph is that he is not preachy. He does not try to ram his message down your throat. He presents his case & is very careful to try & give a balanced view. Reading other reviews I note that some readers are critical of his belief that children are best raised at home until the age of three. I send my son to nursery school for one & a half days per week, & I feel that it is appropriate to do so. I have not changed my mind based on what Biddulph says. I feel that he has to tread a thin line between telling us things that he thinks we need to know & understanding that each child is unique & their special needs, whatever they may be should be catered for. On the whole he does this well.
I feel that he also deals compassionately with the issue of what to do if you are a single mother, & provides clear & pragmatic examples of how to look for & use positive male role models.
I think his down to earth approach, particularly his stressing the fact that parenting is not a perfect job, & even with the best willin the world will always be an ongoing learning process between you & your children is the most humane & accepting that I have read & I thoroughly recommend his work. The only reason this got four stars is because it is a little out of date & could do with a reissue with more statistics.
A parent/researcher - By: Pen, 14 Jan 2008 
Overall, this book is a good contribution to the question of how to parent boys. However, he uses the appearance of research to endorse his personal view that boys are best cared for during the day by family members. In fact, the weight of evidence demonstrates that good quality childcare outside the family is positively beneficial for pre-school children of both genders.
I would challenge Steve Biddulph to produce a revised edition that incorporates real, direct evidence.
yes, but.... - By: Corinna, 14 Jan 2008 There are many good pointsin this book that were already mentioned by the other reviewers. I want to focus on the points that grated with me. First of all, the old out-dated 'research' that Biddulph cites that boys (and childrenin general according to his others books) are better off being raised at home. Negative research about day-care comes from the sixties when these institutions were little more than storage units for children (mind you, I only have very positive memories of the day-carein which I was raisedin the sixties).
Newer research actually reveals that children who went early on into daycare are actually more popular & socially confident than their stay-at-home counterparts. This research comes from countries like Canada & Sweden where the majority of all children are raisedin daycare & which extensively researched the well-being of their collective off-spring.
I am angry that yet another MALE child-expert who NEVER took off time his precious career to rear his children full-time adds to the guilt-inflicting bias against working mothers. I have seen so much suffering by new mothers who were made to believe that it was all their fault if they did not love their new role as a mother. In Britain today every fifth mother is diagnosed with post-natal depression - a mental health crisis of epidemic proportion. Yet, all of these mothers are told by their health-carers that it is their hormones (in other words their own fault) instead of seeing that the isolated wayin which most of us live today puts so much pressure on the individual mother that depression is only a 'natural' outcome.
Isn't it time, Steve, that we care about boys, girls AND their mothers?
A must read! - By: E. Kenny, 16 Nov 2007 
I have 2 boys & I was recommended this book by a Teacher of my youngest child (5 at the time) My eldest was 10 & I had never read any parenting help books before. What an eyeopener, I sat & read the book from cover to cover & it really does help you understand the differences between boys & girls, why they behavein a certain way & all about the testosterone surges that they get. I never really went along with all that stuffabout boys only behaving a certain way because they are programmed by society blah blah! There are big differences & they need to be understood not ignored pushed aside. I would recommend this book to all mothers of boys it really does help.
