Zowiie Williams recently learned that her son, Callum, had been mean to a girl, Billy-Rea, at school. The mom told Metro that Callum said, "words that should NEVER leave a six year old’s mouth" and that he broke up with his "girlfriend" after another friend told him he should.
Hearing how he had treated Billy-Rea inspired Williams to talk to Callum about respecting women, and to show him how he should really treat the girls in his life.
"When your son hurts a girls feelings, it's our job as parents to make him understand how saying things out of anger & upset can make others feel," she wrote in a Facebook post.
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"Today he is marching into school with flowers and an apology because I feel that we need to teach boys the importance of how they should react to certain situations."
This is true for people of all genders, but Williams felt especially responsible as the parent of a boy to make sure he doesn't grow up thinking this is the way men treat women.
But she didn't force her son to get Billy-Rae flowers or even to apologize. Callum came home that day and felt ashamed of how he treated his friend, Williams told Metro. The flowers and the apology were both his ideas.
"I also explained that buying flowers won’t automatically fix the problem and made sure that he understood he couldn’t be mean and expect anything materialistic to fix what he says, and that it is never okay to be mean to anyone especially a girl," Williams told Metro.
Callum walked into school the next day with his head held high, handed Billy-Rae the flowers, and apologized in front of their entire class.
"Callum now understands that what other people think or say should not sway him into acting like he doesn't care about other people's feelings. Especially a girl," Williams wrote on Facebook. "It was a learning step. One I hope he will carry with him always."
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