Children | Consistency | Discipleship | Example | Family | Father | Honesty | Mother | Parents

WHEN MAXIMS CLASH WITH ACTIONS
I cannot overemphasize this point: “Do as I say, not as I do” simply does not work. Thus, if you hail the virtue of complete honesty and at the same time make it apparent that this principle is sometimes casually abandoned, it is the second message that will get through. If your child is aware that you are less than truthful when preparing your income-tax return, for example, or hears you maintain, contrary to fact, that your neighbor’s borrowed lawn mower didn’t malfunction while in your possession, your youngster will conclude that lying for self-protection is perfectly all right. When your maxims clash with your actions, it is the latter your child will adopt. . . By Virginia E. Pomeranz, M.D., F.A.A.P., associate clinical professor of pediatrics at Cornell University Medical College, Parents’ magazine 59:116, August, 1984