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No girly men in our household either. Our boys sometimes grumble when it’s time to pack for a Scout camping trip, but they have a good time with their friends once they get out of the house, and it does them a world of good. They learn great practical and leadership skills and develop self reliance that many of their peers lack. My husband shows them how to fix almost anything, makes sure they mow the lawn, and takes them camping, climbing and boating. Far too many youngsters in our community are being raised as “hot house flowers” who excel academically but seem to live in a bubble wherein their only responsibilities are to their own upward mobility. Not healthy, in my opinion.

I agree with some of the sentiments, but I also want to add some experiences from three decades in the World of large Corp. Employment. My educational experience at College was different than it is today, but after college, I got the Experience as you have described. The first came in the early 80’s, I was hired by a large and very prosperous company. My responsibility was to develop the program for screening and hiring employees on a national scale, and being careful to not cross any of the (then new) laws on sexual discrimination and other new awareness programs. I was also sent all over the country to handle the exploding series of ‘Harassment’ or ‘Discrimination’ complaints. It took three years of really long hours, uncounted meetings with thousands of employees, and three rewrites and reprint's of the Employee Manuals and Management/Operations Manuals. But I finally got the company in line with the ‘Legal’ requirements, and a real working and succeeding grievance program. After solving all the problems, and doing the Corporate headquarters to meet with the owner and his Board of Directors. After presenting all the developments of the program and how it was succeeding, I was told that the company was going to create a dedicated Corporate level team, equal to the HR dept. that would continue the program I created, developed, and implemented. They were deeply appreciative of my work and even mentioned the several millions of dollars I had saved them in personally handling the many suits and complaints during the previous three years. Then I was introduced to the, newly hired woman, that would now take over these duties, and I would be her assistant.
Soon after that, I left that company. The wife of the Owner received information that she acted on. She hired a P.I. and got very incriminating pictures of the Owner and the woman I was assistant to, there were also pictures of the same woman with the Director of HR doing cocaine and each other, along with a huge volume of documents that the IRS found interesting... The company was out of business within two years.
I worked for six more companies during the three decades and saw similar events in two of them. I have seen many good male employees pushed down, pushed aside, or pushed out. Now their sons and grandsons are feeling the results.
For three decades I watched ‘European Heritage’ males being told and forced to be accepting and inclusive of ‘others.’ Now, it is interesting to note how unacepting and noninclusive their replacements are. President Lincoln said something about a 'House divided won't be able to stand.' He was giving good advice...

Excellent work by you and your husband. Another thought, when the boys get to be mid-teens and finish with Scouting, is to consider volunteering with one of the local service branch auxiliaries. Here in San Diego we have the Civil Air Patrol (USAF auxiliary) and the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

The CAP takes them pretty young (age 14 I think) and is quasi-military in that the youths wear uniforms and drill. The Coast Guard Auxiliary is real-man stuff — working the radios, riding the boats, carrying out duty. I think the minimum age for the Coast Guard Auxiliary is 16. Depending on where you live there may be associated organizations for the other service branches.

Whatever it is, recognize that your boys need men and not just their Dad, uncles and grandparents. They need other men whose role model they can also observe. I am technical and business-oriented so I am lousy at fix-it guy stuff around the home. But it would do my son well to be volunteering in a Coast Guard shop and watch a technician use a lathe or fix an electronics box. Or, to get to know an MP at a guard post and listen to him talk about his duty.

Good luck to you and your family. God bless.