My husband also wants our son to play touch football in the league near us once he reaches age. It terrifies me, and I don’t feel supportive of it at all. Would this be discouraging my son from manly activities in the future? This is just an example I’m using as a base for all future thinking.
Trust your husband in this.
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What is it that you are terrified by? This is a genuine question which interests me.
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I once had it explained to me like this. Baby boys and baby girls both identify from birth with their mother rather than with their father. That makes it easier for girls to identify with the right sex. But a boy has an extra and harder task, and that is to move their identification from the mother to his father to become a healthy balanced male. That is why boys must have not only a father, but a strong father, to latch onto for his idendity. Observe how fathers act differently to their boy babies than to their girl babies. You will observe them roughing up their boys, as an intro to toughening them.
I don't believe that many men think about this because it is something instinctive just as it is instinctive for all babies to first identify with their mothers' breast.
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Be careful not to undo the work of the father by being too soft on your boy., and more especially by doubting that he knows what he is doing. Your son will pick up the subtle or maybe not so subtle nuances even in your thoughts, and their may create a sense of unease.
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He will need a certain amount of toughening to survive in this world.
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