The Partnership of Parents

In commenting on the partnership of his parents, an eminent and grateful son once said: “Never in all my boyhood did they fail to stand together on any question which affected the children. We never could play one off against the other, or find anywhere a rift between them.”
This is a simple recognition of the fact that parents are a partnership, a team of two. And one of the most important parts of home so far as children are concerned, so far as everything is concerned, is this partnership of parents.
“Character,” said Samuel Eliot, “is singularly contagious.” Not only is character contagious, but emotions are also. Feelings of all kinds are contagious, between all people, and especially between parents. Tensions, differences, and disagreements are contagious.
Among the great lessons of life for children to learn—and among the great safeguards—are obedience, respect for authority, and seeking and accepting counsel. And if the authority in a home is of the divided and disagreeing kinds, how impaired are the prospects for a child’s learning to respect it? How can a child choose between two members of the same team who are supposed to be playing on the same side?
Another of the great safeguards of life is love at home, and if parents are pulling against each other, how can love be learned?
One reason for a child’s walking in wrong ways would be his not knowing which way to walk. One reason for his going his own way would be his parents’ not unitedly knowing which way they want him to go. Agreement between parents on fundamentals, on basic beliefs, is among the foremost essentials for a solid family, for the solid teaching of children. And in this there must be sincerity, because children will surely detect the signs of insincerity in any partnership of parents. They will feel the tensions and the differences even when they can’t say why they are so.
Division between parent is unfair and confusing and a contributing source to weakening the foundations of the family. Those to whom a child should most look for guidance, must surely be united in the guidance they give. Blessed are those whose parents have achieved a partnership, a solid working of a team of two.