This mom keeps going viral on TikTok for the ‘life lessons’ she’s teaching her sons, and every boy mom should be taking notes, TBH
This is how you raise boys to be good men. A mom on TikTok has made a series of videos about the “life lessons” she’s teaching her sons so that they’ll be good partners when they’re older, and they’re basically a template for all boy moms to follow at this point.
Payal Desai started making the videos as part of a TikTok trend about “dusty” sons, highlighting the things she was teaching her two boys, ages 7 and 3, so they wouldn’t turn out to be dusty. In every video, “I Got 5 On It” plays in the background while she deadpan stares at the camera, and in the background, one of her sons demonstrates a behavior that she’s teaching him that will make him a better partner someday. For example, in one video, Desai’s 7-year-old scrubs a pan while white text over the video reads, “Teaching my son how to clean up after himself so your daughter doesn’t have to deal with a man who was catered to his whole life.”
@payalforstyle Replying to @FrasierCrane taking your input. #inclusive #inclusivitymatters will mix in inclusive language to some posts moving forward. #ally #inclusion
♬ original sound – Bryan
In another, Desai is shaving while her son looks on. The text reads, “Teaching my son that facial hair on a female is perfectly normal so he never thinks it’s ok to embarrass someone for it.”
@payalforstyle Dusty thinks he can bully & laugh at girls for body hair? Never here. As a girl who has been self conscious of body hair since THIRD GRADE, this one was very important to make. #bodyhairshaming #dustyson #dustydaughter #trending #momsoftiktok #raisingboys #raisingsons #raisingboysright
♬ original sound – Bryan
In another, which so many women will love, Desai and her 3-year-old are packing a day bag with snacks together. The text over the video reads, “Teaching my son to pack the bags for our day trip so it’s not your daughter’s mental load every time they leave the house.”
@payalforstyle Dusty do nothing? Not him. #dustyson #dustydaughter #momofboys #momsoftiktok #raisingboys
♬ original sound – Bryan
The life lessons are all simple—but they’re things that so many boys never learn. And what’s even better is that, in the process of making the videos, Desai is learning, too. In an interview with nj.com, she shared that she changed the language in her videos to stop saying “daughter” and start saying “partner” after getting feedback from viewers that she wasn’t being inclusive.
“I took that feedback and I just had a very honest conversation with my son,” she said. “I asked him ‘when you look at your future, what do you picture? When you think about having a home of your own and a family … what do you picture?’ And he said, ‘Well, I could end up with a girl or I could end up with a boy,’ and that open mind of his encouraged me to change the verbiage.”
The comments on her videos are largely supportive, as you can probably imagine.
“Boy mom here. Always taking notes and always raising my son to be a functioning adult,” one wrote in response to one of the recent videos.
Another added, “cant wait to watch our kids having healthy relationships when they are older.”
Because that’s really what this is all about: teaching the next generation to be happier and healthier.
