parenthood

It's too bad when parents think their children can do no wrong - but it's better than thinking they can do no right.

I don't know about you, but my parents are always right.

Consideration is the parent of wisdom.

It is always preferable to visit home with a friend. Your parents will not be pleased with this plan, because they want you all to themselves and because in the presence of your friend, they will have to act like mature human beings. . . .

No one can say the job of bringing up children is easy. There are no perfect rules which will work or are even correct for all children. All the advice given must be adjusted for the particular child and the particular parents.

Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

It distresses parents when children who should obey them, instead imitate them.

To give the white-haired father or mother not only respect, but confidence, to tell the joke and the secret to them first, to accord them cordially the central place in the merrymaking, may seem trivial matters, yet they are not trivial to those who, in the twilight of life, begin to think they are useless or forgotten, and to question whether they shall be missed when they shall go out into the nearing night. Courtesy is but a little thing and costs nothing, and if it is due to any one, it is surely due to the aged among us, especially when these are our parents.

When parents make a practice of hurting and humiliating their children, they do permanent damage. There is a big difference between describing what you don't like or don't stand for, to a child, and your resulting to name-calling, sarcasm, and cutting remarks. Try to avoid criticism and advice about appearances and clothes. Don't say "just do as we say." Take time to listen, consider, and explain your feelings, let them decide on miner issues. Take a reasonable interest in your child's life, but you don't need to know every detail. Remember, teen-agers can't help being oversensitive to everything. Nature biologically causes a teen-ager to cast out the parents. Don't take it so hard. Appreciate their need to grow up and look outward. Don't be too shattered when all of the sudden you aren't as important any more. Get good books on teen-agers, read them, they will help you understand and may help you from making huge mistakes. When you understand where they are and they understand where you are you can meet a common ground.

Force [is] the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.