Del Boy

Your parents obviously had the right idea and made it clear from the start what they expected of you. If they remained fair and consistent, then you knew where you stood and understood why.

I always noticed, at school, that the guys with the more violent type parents tended to be the worst behaved.

My mother-in-law, who was a firm parent who expected good behaviour, nevertheless always warned us when we became parents ourselves that the question of physical punishment had to approached very carefully indeed. As she said - you beat one devil out and two in! (she wasn't being literal - don't go there.) And as for dads, well they have to look forward to the day when they will not be able to win the physical argument. Persuasion required. Now and then I remember kidding my big boys "oh yes - well when you are big enough you will be too old (to challenge)". Not true - not even of my grandsons .

I believe that parents hold the key, which lies in the tender years, and that if you haven't passed on everything you need to by the time your children reach 18, then there is no more you can impart.

I realise well how difficult the teen years are, even amonst the best of kids, but if all else is equal, then this is a different matter, an adjustment in the relationship gradually required as the child prepares for adulthood and learns of confrontation between the best of friends, like Mum and daughter. This has become a very big problem lately because of the advancement of communication technology, the internet etc.

As Anthony Newley said " When you are the father of boys, you worry, Oh how you worry - but when you are the father of girls, you do more than that - you pray".

Parenthood is the very highest vocation.

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The man who fears to go his way alone, but follows where the greater number tread,
Should hasten to his rest beneath a stone; the great majority of men are dead.