Mothercraft {Part III-Area 1}

Oh oh I'm so excited! I found a marvelous section in this Mothercraft book called "Building Family Ties and Respect for Parents." Wow! Let's check it out. The book covers nine areas in family life that can build up a child's respect for their parents.

Building Family Ties and Respect for Parents

1. Enjoyment by parents of each other's company

2. Respect for each other's opinions.

3. A truly self-reliant outlook on life.

4. Treatment of the child with respect as an individual, a person worth consulting.

5. Enjoyment in doing things together as a family.

6. Sensible use of family income and joint decisions about its use.

7. Skills or traits in each family member that the others are proud of.

8. Recognition of lasting values rather than desire for excitement and amusement.

9. Acceptance of community responsibility.

Strengthening Values in Family Life

1. Enjoying each other's companionship is possible only if parents have interests in common.

Many young parents do not realize until it is too late that they must build up enjoyment in each other's concerns if they are to live on a firm basis of understanding. Too often each goes his own way, with tolerance of the interests of the other but no real effort to get together. A man's wife may not find it possible to become tremendously enthusiastic about his hobby of stamp collecting (Ahhh ha ha ha), but if she enjoys reading, a book that throws light on an event commemorated by a certain stamp will give them something to talk over. Her reading indicates to her husband that she doesn't think his hobby childish. A man whose wife likes to do fancywork as they sit together (that sounds a little shady, but I believe this means needlework/knitting)of an evening may find that by reading aloud he can make interesting to her the sort of thing in which he takes keen delight but which she would never read by herself.

An interest in music, photography, gardening, carpentry, or almost anything else can serve to make family life richer if each partner enters into the other's absorbing interest.