By the time your boy is 10, he has learned more than he will absorb during the rest of his life. The period between two and ten puts an especially mighty burden on the father shoulders, because being a god is a pretty exacting job - yet he must face up to the job or fail in the most important mission for which he was placed on earth.
For the average boy to develop into a law abiding citizen, a fathers example and precept is a must. What he does will be the blueprint for the building of his sons character.
If he brags about short practices at the dinner table, his son believes forever after that to skin a sucker is perfectly legitimate.
If he lies to the cop who stopped him for speeding, his son will disregard Sunday school teachers who say lying is sinful; and if the old man runs through a stoplight while Junior is in the car, traffic lights become something to ignore if you can get away with it.
If his father is gentle and considerate with mother, his son will without question treat all her sex with consideration. Be unjust and domineering toward your wife, and your daughters-in-law will be justified in cursing the day you were born.
Drink to excess before your son and he will think drinking is smart. Because of you, alcohol assumes a glamour that is hard to forget, and he may wind up on skid Row because of your thoughtlessness.
Drag your son along when you visit art galleries or museums and explain as best you can the story of past greatness. Take him to see good shows that have withstood the test of time and he will be more apt to enjoy them when he gets big enough to understand them.
Leave good books and magazines scattered around the living room and give your boy books on his birthday, anniversary and at Christmas - books that have delighted boys for generations. Although he will devote a large part of his time to comics, he has wasting his time on such reading and will cultivate a taste for what is proper for a developing mind.
A little boy's mind is like a garden; the seeds you plant there in grow either into weeds or flowers; both are hard to dig out.
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