@wotsup I got up late today - couldn't sleep, still struggling with being minus-one-child -
Anyway, I listen a lot to Radio National during the night, have followed the stories of one famous Parliamentarian who is in the news now - do not want to make this into politics thread, but I know several things about him, including that he had a high-achieving father and in the past I had a casual interest him, because I know similar-aged children of friends of mine who went to same secondary school, both became drug addicts, had absent father, extra-bossy mum. Wondered about father-son-relationships part of my morning.
bviously I am not a man, but I had parents who were too busy to be really 'hands-on' with me, never even got as much as a smack; threat once, when I got too cheeky with Dad, who was a habitual weekend-drinker and I told him off about it. But now I know I was lucky to 'make my own way' into adulthood; pretty much under the guidance of good schooling, a natural tendency to be good and fairly clever. The usual Christian background, which I firmly believed in for a long time - I am more generalist now, but know that Christian values has made our Western societies livable.
But father-son relationships are so important and I believe we are beginning to realise this now, when it seems the family is no longer the ideal model for bringing up children. Maybe we have to continue to experiment before we realise the importance of behaviour modelling, and genuine parental involvement.
I had the most amazing husband, who just knew what was right - and had an innate humanity - but he had only distant acquaintance with his father, who worked a lot, but was a kindly man, rarely hit his children or even raised his voice, yet his brother went completely off the rails.
Genetics play an important role. Congrats if you are happy in your skin, wotsup!! Go well Taurisk
