MEX OSSAI

We women live a terrifying double life. A mother will look at her teenage son with absolute, boundless empathy. She will hold him when he cries, tell him his feelings matter, and pray to God that he finds a woman who loves him for his pure heart, not his wallet. But that exact same woman will turn around and look at her husband, who is literally someone else’s grown son and treat him like a malfunctioning piece of farm equipment if he loses his job or shows a moment of emotional fragility. We completely compartmentalize the fact that the men we drain, stress out, and demand traditional protection from were once little boys who were promised that their hearts mattered. ​ Look at the advice mothers pass down. It is pure, unfiltered hypocrisy. We sit our daughters down and say: "Never settle. Make sure he is a provider. If he is struggling financially, do not build him up, leave him. You deserve a King." But if a mother catches wind that her son's girlfriend is treating him that way? If her son loses his job and his girlfriend packs her bags? That mother will lose her mind. She will call the girlfriend a gold-digger. She will call her toxic. We are actively raising our daughters to become the exact type of women we pray our sons never meet.