For dads raising boys today, it's really important that we raise the verbal bar. What I mean by that is, dads need to model talking, speaking about our emotions. We need to model emotional intelligence. We need to help boys move away from this idea that they don't have to talk about what is going on inside them. One great example of raising the verbal bar is, a friend of mine picked up his 15 year old son from school. They are driving and he says, "How was your day?" "Good." "What did you do?" "Nothing." One word answers, maybe a grunt. He stepped on the brakes, pulled over, and said, "Look, I was really excited to pick you up today and hear about what is going on and if you can't give me more than one word answers, I might have trouble getting you to hockey practice." What the point was, he was raising the bar by saying, that's not enough and I need to hear more. It almost goes without saying, but dads really need to model this. Dads can't go and give one word answers to their mother. Raising the verbal bar is critical for boys today. The other thing is making sure that dads talk to their sons about fatherhood from an early age. Teach them about what you are doing. Show them that they are going to make great dads some day, whether it's a biological dad or a mentor. It is really important that dads actively teach boys about fatherhood.