OCR Text |
Show Iioyhood Chums If you are a father, are you acquainted with your boy's chum ? Do vou know him to be fit company for your son? Every normal boy has singled out from his friends ana acquaintances one particular chum. This chum is his "other self," all of the "other self" he will have until years of maturity develop in him the sex attraction. If you have studied boy nature, or even if you can recall your own boyhood days, you must know that they are the days wherein the lasting impressions of life are formed. It is also the period when the domination of a strong personality is most potent for good or evil over the weaker or more plastic nature. . T, , . , Have you studied your boy's chum? It may be almost as necessary as a study of the boy himself. Is that chum all you could wish him to be? Is he stronger, or weaker, ot purpose and character than your boy? Is he stronger, all the more reason for you to know his real character, tor he is as sure to impress his personality upon your own son as that strength overcomes weakness. The boy rarely develops habits or traits of character acquired from mere chance acquaintances or from strangers. It is from his intimates that he absorbs ideas that become fixed in the mind and develop into character. Hence the imperative im-perative necessity that those intimates be of right character. Some think it is a risky business to attempt to regulate a son's friendships. Admittedly so, yet you have it in your! power to in a large degree control the matter. Every normal boy has great respect for his father, provided pro-vided that father is deserving of his respect. The first step, therefore is to secure and deserve the boy's confidence. This accomplished, a little tactful consideration on your part, together with a personal interest in his every day life, ought to give you control of the situation. But the surest way to control the matter is to constitute yourself the boy's chum. This can be done if the matter is taken in hand early in the boy's life. . To every young man his father is a model of perfection. His first boyish ambition is to imitate father. If that father is deserving of imitation and will cultivate his boy's confidence, confi-dence, the problem is solved. . Every father should seek first place m his boy s confi-donce confi-donce Hp should make certain that he stands higher in the boy's re";'d than all others. And as the years pass he should ee to that the bond is strengthened instead of weakened. But this can be done by fully entering into the life of the boy and by making his life your life. |