Minors Not Admitted

It is a commonplace occurrence, to sometimes startling nevertheless, how children grow up in the pattern of their parents⎯both in appearance and performance. It isn’t always so, and we must admit the many exceptions. But it is so often the case that what we both preach and practice as parents had better be consistent with what we want our children to become. But of the two, practice is perhaps the most important: for if our example isn’t what it should be, we had just as well make up our minds that we may have difficulty in showing a youngster the right road. Children are so much more likely to see what we do than to hear what we say. And if these youth of our are thinking (and often they are thinking far ahead of what some of us adults suppose), they must sometimes wonder why the grownups they live with and look up to, tell them one thing and do another. Sometimes, for example, they see signs, literally or figuratively, that say “Minors Not Admitted.” But isn’t this in itself an admission to youth of an inconsistent situation? Of course, logic can explain how it is perfectly proper for our performance to be at variance with our teachings. Logic will say that we send our children to bed earlier than we ourselves need to go; that they need some kinds of nourishment that we ourselves don’t need. Logic will say that we can take things they can’t take or do things they can’t do⎯all of which is tru3e in many situations. But logic misapplied has misled many a man. And it isn’t easy to convince a youngster that he shouldn’t partake of the pattern and practices of the people he most looks up to. What a father does and where a father goes had better be good for his son, because sometime or other almost every son is likely to want to walk in the footsteps of his father. And what a mother does had better be good for her daughter. Those who are responsible for the rearing and training and teaching or youth would do well to see that their practices are consistent with their pronouncements. Because it is so likely that youth will follow in our footsteps, our performance had better be consistent with our professions.