For the New Year, I’ve discovered from the Extension Family and Consumer Sciences Archives, The Ten Commandments for Parents from 1948:
I. Thou shalt love thy child with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, but wisely, with all thy mind.
II. Thou shalt think of thy child, not as something belonging to thee, but as a person.
III. Thou shalt regard his respect and love not as something to be demanded, but something worth earning.
IV. Every time thou art out of patience with thy child’s immaturity and blundering, thou shalt call to mind some of the childish adventures and mistakes which attended thine own coming of age.
V. Remember that it is thy child’s privilege to make a hero out of thee, and take thou thought to be a proper one.
VI. Remember also that thy example is more eloquent than thy fault-finding and moralizing.
VII. Thou shalt strive to be a sign-post on the highway of life rather than a rut out of which the wheel cannot turn.
VIII. Thou shalt teach thy child to stand on his own feet and fight his own battles.
IX. Thou shalt help thy child to see beauty, to practice kindness, to love truth and to live in friendship.
X. Thou shalt make of the place wherein thou dwellest a real home, a haven of happiness for thyself, for thy children, for thy friends and for thy children’s friends.
Still applicable? I think so. Watch the Family and Consumer Sciences calendar at www.ugaextension/bulloch for programming available in 2007.
I. Thou shalt love thy child with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, but wisely, with all thy mind.
II. Thou shalt think of thy child, not as something belonging to thee, but as a person.
III. Thou shalt regard his respect and love not as something to be demanded, but something worth earning.
IV. Every time thou art out of patience with thy child’s immaturity and blundering, thou shalt call to mind some of the childish adventures and mistakes which attended thine own coming of age.
V. Remember that it is thy child’s privilege to make a hero out of thee, and take thou thought to be a proper one.
VI. Remember also that thy example is more eloquent than thy fault-finding and moralizing.
VII. Thou shalt strive to be a sign-post on the highway of life rather than a rut out of which the wheel cannot turn.
VIII. Thou shalt teach thy child to stand on his own feet and fight his own battles.
IX. Thou shalt help thy child to see beauty, to practice kindness, to love truth and to live in friendship.
X. Thou shalt make of the place wherein thou dwellest a real home, a haven of happiness for thyself, for thy children, for thy friends and for thy children’s friends.
Still applicable? I think so. Watch the Family and Consumer Sciences calendar at www.ugaextension/bulloch for programming available in 2007.