My kids are on a big kick these days of drawing superhero comics; mostly, the stories are about people falling, because falling is fun to draw! But I like that they’re thinking about heroes.

We talk a lot about what it means to be a hero, and about how comic book heroes aren’t exactly the same as real-life heroes. Nearly four years ago, on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we talked about what it meant to be a hero, and about how some of the bravest heroes are the ones who don’t survive. It’s still hard for my kids to wrap their heads around that idea, because of course Batman and Spiderman always live to fight another day, but I think they’re getting it.

Maybe.

My children are fortunate because they have men in their lives who model for them what it means to be a hero every day — their father, of course, who is absolutely their favorite grown up boy, but also their grandfathers and their coaches and various neighbors and friends. We are lucky that in our circle of friends, we interact with so many men who are trying, in little ways, to make the world a better place for their children — and everyone else’s children.

What makes a man a “real man”? My friends Holly Burns and Karen Walrond sat down with Ree Drummond to talk about just this. You can see their conversation in the video below. And then you tell us: What makes a man a real man? What makes him a hero?