[Betelnut]

I think some parents want to "toughen" up their child, no matter what the sex.

A few months ago I was at a local park and got to talking to a women who was there with her daughter who was about the same age as my daughter (2 1/2 years old). At one point, her daughter, up on a high slide, fell down almost the entire length of the slide sideways, partially on her face (sliding down the slide face down on the edge of the slide). I would estimate it was a sliding fall of about 4-5 feet. My own daughter has done this before and we had to go to the doctor for antibiotics because she had bitten the inside of her mouth and lip and broken the skin. So it wasn't a terrible/life threatening fall but it was scary and potentially could have hurt her daughter.

The child started to cry and, instead of comforting her, I was shocked when the women simply said, "Oh shake it off, shake it off." The child had just fallen/slid out of control for more than the length of her own body with her face dragging on the edge of the slide. I wonder how the women would have felt if SHE had fallen face down on something for 5-6 feet? At the very least, even an adult would have taken a few minutes to get back his or her composure and test his or her body to make sure nothing was broken!

So some people must think that a quick hug and "Are you okay?" will somehow make their child weak. It is sad.

Keep hugging your son! There is a big difference between hugging/cuddling and "babying," in my opinion. "Babying" means you haven't realized that your child has moved on to another stage emotionally and means you are refusing to see that he/she is growing up. It evenutally is demeaning. But hugging and kissing is for everyone! It has been shown that, statistically, parents tend to hug their sons less as they get older. How can that be a good thing?