"He's acting like a girl! Stop hiding him behind your apron strings," my father exclaimed in passionate disgust to my mother when she protested sending my ten-year-old brother out to play in a dress. At seven-years of age, I did not know what, exactly, my brother had done to deserve such punishment, but I felt the pain and shame of my father's cruelty as I watched my older brother hide from the neighborhood children who would taunt him. My father, a man who shielded his own sensitivity in military machismo, believed he was teaching his son to be a man.

William Pollack, in his book, "Real Boys" (Holt, NY, 1999), calls this kind of destructive behavior toward our sons a part of the "boy code" perpetuated by our society. His research validates what Olga Silverstein and feminist family therapists have warned us about previously in "The Family Web: Gender Patterns in Family Relationships" (p.166, Guilford, NY, 1988): Boys are shamed into early separation from their mothers and subsequently cut off from their own expression of sadness and vulnerability in favor of anger and detachment -- all in order to prove their manhood.

Repression of feelings (big boys don't cry) starts early for a male child in our society and mothers are warned from the beginning of the emasculating dangers of making their son a "mama's boy."

Boys are diagnosed with significantly higher rates of learning disabilities, hyperactivity and conduct disorder in our schools. In fact, Pollack tells us that boys are 10 times more likely to be diagnosed with a serious emotional illness than girls. Is it any wonder that boys, ashamed to show emotional pain, reach out for help through aggressive conduct? After all, it is manly to punch, while it is "sissy" to cry.

With suicide being the third biggest killer of young people ages 15 to 24, boys are four to six times more likely to succeed at committing suicide than girls.

The push toward early separation and independence for a boy, usually by toddler age, can set the stage for depression when adjustment problems occur later. And conflicts of identity and sexuality that arise in adolescence are fertile ground for complications when boys are given a second push to be self-reliant and repress needs for ongoing nurturing.

But William Pollack warns us that repression of vulnerable feelings may cause a boy to further harden. Anger and rage, as the only acceptable male emotions, can create a formula for violence. When this equation gestates over time, unexpressed inner grief can take the form of outward rage.

When disconnection has reached crisis proportions inside and out, violence can become the distorted cry for help. Anger and rage are perceived emotions of strength and even power -- while sadness, fear and loneliness are considered weak. When a boy believes this, he acts accordingly. Cut off from his own emotions, he becomes disconnected from himself. Perhaps it is when this disconnection becomes complete that the choice to kill ensures that others will know the pain he feels inside.

In the absence of any one committed adult who cares, the situation can worsen -- with destruction expressed toward oneself and others. Or, as in the Columbine tragedy, both. Certainly there are many contributing factors in the formula for violence of this kind, notwithstanding the availability of illegal and sophisticated weapons, the anonymity of the Internet and the potential for desensitization to violence than may evolve from the common violent imagery found in the movies our children watch and the video games they play.

Still, the line between reality and fantasy are crossed because of serious emotional illness, which has not been adequately addressed by people and the systems we create as a society to raise and nurture our children.

Our society's formula for manhood is a part of the equation for depression, which may help set a boy on a course toward "crying bullets" to express his sadness and break his isolation.

What can we do to help our sons?

Testosterone does not equal violence, but it may contribute to differences in a boy's tendencies of self-expression. Do not shame your son for his aggression or label him because of it. Help him channel aggressive energy constructively and teach him to reach out for help without humiliation.

Keep in mind that the major protection your child has against drugs, unhealthy risk taking behavior or crime is the ongoing relationship of one, caring adult who is committed to his well-being. More is better, but one is enough! This is you. It is up to you to know where your child is, which sometimes may take extra effort in these days of travel in cyberspace! Do you know, for example, what sites your child has been visiting on the Internet? Time magazine (May 10, 1999) offers parents a list of software and tips to help you keep track of the sites your child has recently visited online.

Do not fall into despair or helplessness about violence in videos, music or movies. Instead, stay connected with your child in talking about them.

If necessary, consider limitations, but do not stop there! Talk about drugs, alcohol, violence and crime. Take your children to movies that show the values you want to teach them. Watch shows with them you believe are violent and be willing to discuss what you see. Your input is your child's greatest ally against unhealthy influences. Know who your child's friends are and what they spend their time doing. Now, more than ever, the answer is to connect and communicate!

A word of support to single mothers: Single mothers are often encouraged to find male role models, leaving a mother to believe she cannot raise her son on her own. This is not true! Feminist therapists have voiced the belief that a boy's relationship to his mother forms the basis for being able to be intimate. Emotional intimacy between mother and son is a foundation for a boy's growth, not his demise.

Certainly, including more adults, male and female in your son's life is desirable, as any one single caretaker has limited energy. But searching out male role models to make up for a deficit in your own perceived ability to effectively parent leads to false solutions.

Healthy parenting requires adequate self-esteem and in a single mother household -- as with a two parent household -- an attitude of respect for men and women is critical to a son's (and daughter's) development.

Mothers have long been held responsible for their children's development on the one hand, and ridiculed for their closeness to their sons on the other. The "boy code" binds both men and women.

William Pollack supports mothers and fathers in their quest to be close to their son. He acknowledges, rather than criticizes, mothers for their efforts: "...it is not mothers who are crippling our boys masculinity. It is society's myths about manhood that are preventing boys from being seen and trained as whole human beings, men who can work effectively and live in close relationship to other people." (p.98, "Real Boys")

Nurture your sons as much as your daughters. See their strengths and their vulnerabilities. The "boy code" does not by itself cause violence, but it can establish an environment where it can grow.