So my Dad has this interesting perspective that young white boys cause trouble because there’s no legitimate hard work work for them to do in our culture. He points to the observation that a majority of blue collar laborers in his area are immigrants of questionable citizenship and remembers his days as a young man, working as a mason. He might have done carpentry, too. Don’t tell him I’ve forgotten. I know what his URL is, and I have a picture of his motorcycle in my living room, these are the things that matter, OK.
Anyhow- I find it interesting that some parents of young boys say that they’re being punished and drugged for boyish-ness that used to be ignored (Boys will be boys) and older boys might be more likely to find success in sales or computer programming or other white-collar jobs than in masonry or carpentry and I wonder where is all this going? He says he would have been more of a trouble-maker as a young man if he didn’t have a physical outlet, like manual labor, to keep him out of trouble.
It’s an interesting theory, one I know nothing about being a girl, with 6 daughters. I know when we were first married, my husband worked blue-collar. I remember taking my very first newborn out shopping for the first time to buy him steel-toed work boots before I ever thought of shopping online.
So What do you think? How has the face of the work force changed men’s roles? Is it harder for a young man to deal with energy and testosterone with a white-collar job? Does the recreation industry thrive when work isn’t physical? Is manual labor more rewarding? (Dad spoke of looking at the wall when he was done building it and feeling a sense of accomplishment)
I have a lot of friends with boys, speak up here. What do you think? I don’t think I”m off-base here because I really don’t have a position, just a flicker of several thoughts that may or may not be connected and I wonder where it’s going. It may be the seeds of an interesting discussion, though. And it may not.
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Lotsa crazy crud going down at the Hannigan house. Don’t miss another post,
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