I know of a lady in my locality who has a son and a daughter. Her son is younger to her daughter. When I had initially shifted to this place, I became friends with her.

She is a mother obsessed about her son. Her daughter seems independent enough in her studies and general outlook but her son seems to be a typical spoilt brat. He is a rowdy fellow who loves picking fights and showing his might. He also loves attracting attention by any means. In the tution classes, he keeps chit chatting, playing truant to ensure that the teacher focuses on him. Earlier my daughter was friends (so called) with him. But he started abusing her and calling her names on different pretext. He started having issues when she used to say something or make a face or anything else. And after whatever he did, his ultimatum was ‘ don’t you dare tell my mother…or else’. Earlier I used to ferry him , my daughter and another girl to the coaching classes. But one day, I heard him saying that he hates my daughter but he was told by his mother to keep quiet because he was using us to go to the coaching classes.

I told my daughter to stop talking to him because if a boy cannot respect a girl, he should be completely written off! Respect is basic!

His mother on the other hand knows about the temper issues but prefers to solve it through prayer and meditation. She doesn’t believe that her son is at fault because she says his father also had the same issues and now he is okay. For her, the son is still a cute baby who cannot do anything wrong.

I wonder what will happen when her son grows up? He gets into major brawls and fights in school. Maybe the mother doesn’t know or maybe she ignores it because her son can’t do anything wrong.

Do you think this is right? Are we raising these kinds of boys who don’t know the basic meaning of the word respect? Are these the men who will get into domestic violence cases or murders or even worse. Isn’t it a mother’s duty to ensure that her son learns to respect women?