It should be considered the normal reference point by which the different forms of family relationship are to be evaluated. With this introduction, the Church charges parents with a grave responsibility toward their children. The right and duty of parents to educate their children is primordial and inalienable. Parents must regard their children as children of God and respect them as human persons . Showing themselves obedient to the Father in heaven, they educate their children to fulfill God's law.
Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children.
They bear witness to this responsibility by first creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well suited for education in the virtues. Parents have a grave responsibility to give a good example to their children. He who disciplines his son will profit by him. The home is the natural environment for initiating a human being into solidarity and communal responsibilities.