Summer with Boys

Jun 08, 2026

What does summer look like for your family?

The answer to that question, I’m assuming, depends a lot of what season of life you & your boys are in:

If your boys are preschool/early elementary school age, you’re probably spending a lot of time trying to juggle work and childcare — trying to figure out how the $*%* you’re supposed to work & care for/supervise/have fun with your kids (without going broke or losing your mind.)
If your boys are a bit older & into sports — well, you’re probably spending your weekend traveling from tournament to tournament and spending a lot of time sitting on the sidelines or in the stands. (And spending a lot of money at the concession stand!)
If your boys are high school aged, they’re either self-motivated to get up early and go work out at the gym (for sports) OR they’re staying in bed ‘til far closer to noon (or past noon) than you’d like. They’re spending a lot more time with friends, video games, and their phone than with you, and you’re worrying/trying to figure out how to balance their autonomy against your need/desire to know what they’re doing (and to keep them safe.)

Whatever season of life you’re in, summer with boys can be challenging. Here are a few Building Boys resources that may help:

Tell me: How’s your summer going so far? What’s the most challenging part? The most enjoyable part? Got any fun traditions you’d like to share?

Here’s to building boys,

Jen

IN THE NEWS

Highlights:

“There were about 1.67 times more published research papers on female puberty than male puberty between 1990 and 2016”
“Better understanding the relationship between puberty timing and disease risk in men may enhance identification and prevention of chronic illnesses.”
“More than half of American male deaths in 2023 were considered premature…The leading causes of these early deaths include heart disease, cancer, and diabetes — conditions that have been tied to the timing of puberty.”
“Expanding what is known about male puberty provides more evidence for how best to meet the needs of boys.”

Highlights:

“The study, conducted by Male Allies UK, surveyed 1,000 boys aged 12 to 16 and found that a hefty 85% of them have spoken to a chatbot, 20% know a peer who is ‘dating’ an AI chatbot, and over a quarter prefer the attention and connection of a bot partner to a real, human-to-human relationship.”
“AI validates, affirms, never tires, never pushes back. For an adolescent boy still assembling a sense of self, that kind of frictionless attention can feel like intimacy”
“It is not hard to understand why a young man finds comfort in a technology specifically engineered to welcome him, never judge him, and appear to understand him, especially when the human voices in his life are either demanding something impossible or dismissing him entirely”

Highlights:

“Reading is wonderful, of course. But it is one of many worthwhile ways to spend time, and not every intelligent, curious, capable person will choose to spend hours reading books for pleasure.”
“Millions of boys who rarely crack open a novel still grow up to be productive, thoughtful, capable men.”

Highlights:

“Black boys are not problems to fix. They are gifts to nurture and pour into.”
“Many Black boys enter schools already carrying labels: ‘too loud,’ ‘too difficult,’ ‘too far behind,’ or ‘unmotivated.’”
“Black boys deserve to learn in environments where they see themselves reflected positively in books, leadership, conversations, and curriculum. They have to know their history matters, their voice matters, and their identity is not something that needs to be erased to succeed.”

Highlights:

“We are no longer talking about boys simply feeling inadequate online. We are talking about boys beginning to view chemical enhancement as a rational solution to inadequacy.”
“The modern teenage boy is quietly being taught that his body is a project requiring constant optimization, and that failure to maximize it reflects laziness, weakness, or lack of discipline.”
“Unlike traditional eating disorders, male body-image pathology often hides behind socially celebrated behaviors: discipline, gym culture, clean eating, supplementation, self-improvement, and ‘grindset’ masculinity.”
“Teenagers are increasingly purchasing injectable research chemicals through gray-market suppliers, anonymous Telegram channels, influencer affiliate links, overseas manufacturers, and ‘research only’ websites”