How to Bring Down a Son
1. Provide him with plenty of free spending money.
2. Permit him to choose his own companions without restraint or direction.
3. Give him a latchkey, and allow him to return home at any hour of the night.
4. Make no inquiry as to where and with whom he spends his leisure hours.
5. Give him to understand that manners make a good substitute for morals.
6. Let him expect pay for every act of helpfulness.
7. Let him spend his Sunday hours on the street instead of in church.
8. Be careful never to let him hear you pray.
How to Bring Up a Son
1. Make home the brightest and most attractive place on earth.
2. Make him responsible for the performance of a limited number of daily duties.
3. Never punish him in anger.
4. Do not ridicule his conceits, but rather talk frankly on matters in which he is interested.
5. Let him invite his friends to your home and table.
6. Be careful to impress upon his mind that making character is more important
than making money.
7. Live uprightly before him at all times; then you will be able to talk to him with
power.
Take twelve fine, full-grown months. See that they are entirely
free from all the old memories of bitterness, rancor, hate and jealousy.
Cleanse them of every clinging spite; be careful to pick off any specks
of pettiness or self-pity. In short, free these months from all the past.
Now cut them into thirty or thirty-one equal parts. Don't attempt
to make up the whole batch at once, but prepare one day at a time
and into each day put:
- 12 parts of faith
- 11 of courage
- 10 of patience
- 9 of work
- 8 of hope
- 7 of fidelity
- 6 of thoughtfulness
- 5 of kindness
- 4 of rest
- 3 of prayer
- 2 of meditation.
and add,
- 1 carefully selected resolution.
Put in about one teaspoon of good spirits, a dash of fun, a pinch
of folly, a sprinkling of play, and a heaping cup of humor. Pour into the
whole a liberal amount of love and mix - with vim. Cook thoroughly
in a fervent heat. Garnish with smiles and a sprig of joy. Then serve
with quietness, unselfishness and cheerfulness.
