I don’t give any of them “appropriate adult male attention.”. My job is to teach them how to survive in the woods. Kids today are really into social drama and I am too autistic to play.
When a kid spends the night in a tent and cooks his own food, positive always happens.
IMO sometimes just being the guy who teaches them cool stuff is all the appropriate attention they need. I didn’t get hugs and pats on the back from every adult male in my life - those came primarily from my dad. There were other guys I looked up to who, just by their example, helped form in me the right ideas about being a man. One was my dad’s hunting buddy, who is a Marine. The guy did everything cool that a 12-yr-old boy could imagine - martial arts, played the drums, rode a motorcycle, collected guns. Looking back he was, without even knowing, a really positive influence on me.