Parenting

We always used "please" and "thank you" to our children. We weren't perfect parents, but did our best.

During what we call "The year from Hell" when our younger son was a huge problem and left home for six weeks (he stayed at the home of a friend), as bad as things were, that son NEVER said "I hate you!" to either of us. Even now, some fifteen years later, I'm astonished at that. We had tried very hard to model good behavior, and it paid off.

(He came back home after those six weeks, graduated high school, went off to college, and things were pretty much okay.)