5 Conversations You Must Have with Your Son [Paperback]

Vicki Courtney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2011

From the cradle to college, tell your sons the truth about life before they believe the culture's lies. 

For parents with boys newborn to eighteen, 5 Conversations You Must Have with Your Son will be as much a part of the boyhood journey as those Legos you're still finding under the sofa cushions and the garage full of sports equipment. Award-winning youth culture commentator Vicki Courtney helps moms and dads pinpoint and prepare the discussions that should be ongoing in a boy's formative years. 

Fully addressing the dynamic social and spiritual issues and other influencers at hand, several chapters are written for each of the conversations, which are: 

1. Don't define manhood by the culture's wimpy standards; it's okay to be a man! 

2. What you don't learn to conquer may become your master. 

3. Not everyone's doing it! (And other naked truths about sex you won't hear in the locker room.) 

4. Boyhood is only for a season. P.S. It's time to grow up! 

5. Godly men are in short supply-dare to become one! 

The book also offers invaluable tips on having these conversations across the various stages of development: five and under, six to eleven, and twelve and up.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Vicki Courtney is a speaker and the best-selling author of many books and Bible studies. Among her popular writings are the ECPA Christian Book Award winners TeenVirtue and TeenVirtue Confidential. Vicki and her husband have three grown children, a son-in-love, a daughter-in-love, and a grandchild. They live in Austin, Texas where they are blessed to have all of their children living nearby. More information can be found at VickiCourtney.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: B&H Books; Original edition (June 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805449868
• ISBN-13: 978-0805449860
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Vicki Courtney is an author and speaker with a ministry that reaches over 150,000 girls and mothers a year through speaking, books, and online resources. A mother herself to three children (one teen and two grown), she seeks to provide both teens and their parents with the tools necessary to navigate today's promiscuous culture. She has done hundreds of radio and newspaper interviews and appeared on CNN, Fox News, and CNN Headline News to discuss issues impacting teens. She is the creator of VirtuousReality.com, an online magazine for teen girls, which has attracted visitors from all 50 states and over 30 countries. She is a national speaker to women of all ages and the best-selling author of numerous books including, "5 Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter,"(winner of a Mom's Choice award); "Your Girl;" "Your Boy;" and the best-selling "TeenVirtue" magabook series for teen girls and the "Between" magabook series for tween girls. "TeenVirtue" and "TeenVirtue Confidential" are ECPA Christian Book Award recipients in the Children and Youth category. Vicki's newly released book "Ever After" looks at the realities of marriage and motherhood. The book offers women a behind the scenes glimpse of what a fairytale looks like on an average day for the average wife and mother. Vicki offers advice, mistakes made, lessons learned and the promise that God meets us in the middle wherever we are in a journey.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book for parents of Boys! June 21, 2011

By Dad of Divas TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

As a father of girls, I was interested to examine what this book would provide parents of boys. What sage wisdom they would share to help boys become men. This book, though broken down into five main conversation topics is broken down well into 17 chapters. The chapters were easy to read and follow and they go into quite a bit of depth about how you can help your boys become men that you and they can be proud of.

The book tackles some important topics from humor to sex, to hormones and self-control, this book has a bit of everything within it. Not only does it talk right to the reader, it also shares a plethora of resource for any parent of boys. If you are a parent of boys and have felt concerned about how best to aid them in their development, I highly recommend this great book!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for parents and ministry leaders August 5, 2011

By cllane2

Format:Paperback

In an age where being a man is probably the hardest it has ever been, this book is a refreshing guide to Christian parents seeking to raise Godly sons in an ungodly world. It's goal is to help parents tell their children the truth about life before they believe culture's lies. In the book, Courtney describes some of the challenges she faced in raising young boys to become men. She often told her sons, "My job is to act as the frontal lobe in your brain until yours is fully developed." While this book won't solve all the problems the culture has thrown at parents, including early and frequent exposure to sex, feminist ideologies, and the Peter Pan mentality, it will guide parents in having conversations with their sons about what it means to be a godly man.
The five conversations are listed below:
Conversation 1: Don't define manhood by the culture's wimpy standards. It's OK to be a man!
Conversation 2: What you don't learn to conquer may become your master
Conversation 3: Not everyone's doing it! (And other naked truths about sex you won't hear in the locker room.)
Conversation 4: Boyhood is only for a season. P.S. It's time to grow up!
Conversation 5: Godly men are in short supply. Dare to become one!
While this book is written by a mom primarily to other mothers, it is useful to both mothers and fathers, as well as youth leaders, children's ministry leaders, and anyone else who has influence in a young man's life. For those in ministry, this book and it's counterpart, 5 Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter, are two books that should be in your library!

I received the galleys of this book from NetGalley.com for the purpose of this review.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Ok - valuable resources and information a parent can use to engage their sons in meaningful conversations July 16, 2012

By Dan Panetti VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

This book is a good resource for parents as they engage in meaningful conversations with their sons to help shape them into the men God designed for them to be. For the most part, the book is valuable because Courtney pulls some excellent research and quotes from others so you don't have to read another dozen books to get the same information. I do have one small problem with the book - Courtney's son goes off to camp and writes home about his incredible accomplishment of winning the "tooting" competition in his cabin. Seriously? Listen, I'm all in on the concept that we need to encourage our boys to be boys - to play outside, to get dirty, to have adventures, all that stuff - but I think we need to balance that stuff with self-control, responsibility, chivalry and decency at the same time. I know this is such a minor point - and I suppose that everyone has something different that they find rude, obnoxious or offensive. I'm just not a big believer that passing gas and belching are rights of passage to manhood...sorry.

Courtney's biggest appeal, I believe, is her transparency...and, well, her honesty that parenting is difficult and she isn't perfect. She tells stories of their successes and failures as parents - and we can all relate to both! The book is a good read, a useful tool for parents looking for resources and information as they navigate parenting boys in a world that has lost its way on what true manhood is.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good info on better parenting... December 28, 2012

By Jonathan Esterman

Format:Paperback

Vicki Courtney does not describe herself as a teen expert. She does not have a degree in childhood development. These aside, however, her experiences as a mother gives her the motivation to learn and share, making this title an authentic read.

Most people do not go through parenting training before having a child. There are certifications for handling food, driving, teaching, and even training for employment, but parenting does not have any prerequisites. Maybe this is a mistake, but moving past that point, every parent, as a result, has to go through the experience of learning how to be the best parent they can be – or at least that’s what every parent should do.

Raising boys and girls are two different challenges altogether. They are practically different species in how opposite they are. Courtney uses practical humor in her writing of this book to help illustrate the challenges parents, and specifically moms, face raising boys. But despite those challenges of testosterone and crazy stunts, the issue isn’t the little things that make the experience worth living, but rather making sure your boys know the truths about life before the culture can influence them with falsities.

What lies need to be addressed? In this book, five simple ones: (i) do not define manhood by society’s standards, but know that it’s okay to be a man; (ii) learn how to conquer issues so that they don’t master you; (iii) not everyone is having sex, (iv) learn how to grow up, and (v), how to become a godly man. Each of these five sections are broken down to several chapters that clarify the discussion for parents.

Courtney’s writing is well-versed and humorous, laced with strong truths that I find highly important for parents to know as well.... Good parenting requires learning, even if you’re already underway. As for my and my wife, we have a four year old and a one year old. Luckily, this book will help us before we have to directly encounter the issues she has, but even for those who have moved past those stages of growth, I’d still recommend this read….

Disclosure: I was contracted to write an honest review in exchange for a reviewer copy of the product. The opinions stated in this review are solely my own. Read more ›