The Idaho Republican., 1916-03-03
WHAT A FATHER CAN
DO FOR HIS son
Paper Read at the Last Parents and
Teachers Meeting
nxy Dat wAl..,-

line that lurk behind each tree and
post when the boy ventures out at
night, this father should be play
mate and advisor, a friend in need
and confident. He should take
live active interest in this son from
prattling babyhood to boastful young
manhood. This father should live
over his boyhood days and be boy.
Backward, turn backward, oh, time
in your flight, !
Make me boy again just for to-
night"
was the earnest prayer of the poet
and is the earnest desire of every
boy on behalf of his beloved father.
You cannot be a mock boy either.
You must be real. Our interests must
be your interests If we are to have
mutual relationships. Our sports are
real things to us and youth is the
playtime of our lives. We must have
you as a companion in such sports
or else our ways must part and we
are no longer pals. Those things
which entertain and instruct us must
appeal to you or else we go elsewhere
for companionship and do not mean
by this that this father must devote
all his time to us, not at all. Nor do
] mean that he must necessarily ac-
tually engage in our games of all
sorts, but have an interest that is
manifestly sympathetic, and to some
extent personal and enthusiastic. We
as boys know full well that father
has his business cares and his busi-
ness and social obligations. He needs
to have his lodge and clubs the same
as we need our class and our crowd.
Likewise he needs to renew his
youth with us, and we need to get
mans viewpoint from him. We then
need, vest, even demand each other.
Then come, dad, let us be chums.
know of family that consisted
OF one son and two devoted daught-
ers. The father and son did not get
along well. There always seemed an
unbridgeable gulf between them.
The son having no companions at
home went out ON the. street to see
If he might not find there some pal
that would afford him friendly pleas
ure. Unfortunately he did not choose
the best society. He grew up with
these associates and later did not
seem to care what was to be his lot.
His father not reali2ing that it was
his own fault, naturally thought it
was the boys, so sent him, as re-
form measure, away to school. The
boy stayed until he became tired of
the school, just like all his other un-
dertakings, stole out one night and
left. After raoming around awhile
he came back home-his father did
not seem to concern himself so the
boy just roamed around, leading the
wasted life of a tramp.
Then I know of another family
that has two sons and two daughters.
This family seems to be one of those
well organized social units, that is
q real benefit to society. The father
was pail to his boys and saw that
each received a good education. Now
the father and two sons are work
ing together with such harmony and
good will toward each other and
their fellow-men, that they are an
uplAAt W oOEAOtJ. Oil AOt I0hAA6
these views from incomplete expert
ence as the family grows, but can
see the finished products.
As the son grows older and be-
comes of business age / think the
father should give him an interest
in his business. If it be to the sons
liking as life work. In that way
1t gives a young man who is just
entering the business world a good
start under favorable conditions and
an opportunity to make good.
Then again / truly believe that a
father and son should have the high
est regard and respect for each other,
so that when this son has some
trouble to share, or joy to proclaim,
he may go In all confidence to his
pal-his father. Or perchance he
has arrived at that age where he
wants to know, he simply wants to
know for it is his Unborn right to
know, certain very important things
about life and all it means. Then,
oh fathers, If you could be our pals,
our confidents, our advisors, we
would not be driven to the streets,
or back lots for our information.
It would come to us clean and re-
spectacle in place of vile and shame
full. I know, even as young as
am, that things high and holy, have
been made low and dirty by mis-
conceptions from evil sources and
this should not be.
And now in conclusion, let me
suggest that it becomes the absolute
duty of every father toward his son,
to measure up to the ideal that his
son forms of him. l doubt not that
many young lad just at manhood's
door has been ruined by the fact
that his respected father, in whom
he has learned to confide and trust,
has been found wanting in those
qualities Of honesty, truth, chastity,
or family devotion which this lad |
had been lead to believe were his.
A sadder, more heart breaking fact |
is not possible to the average boy
than TO feel these cherished ideals |
slipping away. To know that in |
reality this father who was to the
boy the best, the truest and most |
trustworthy man in all the broad
land, is after all traitor to this
trust, an impostor in the guies of a