My meaning is, that no man can expect his children to respect what he degrades.
Interpretation
Parents must model respect and integrity to earn the same from their children.
This quote by Charles Dickens emphasizes the importance of setting a positive example for children. It suggests that children learn values and attitudes from their parents; if a parent degrades certain principles or behaviors, children are unlikely to respect those values or the parent themselves. Therefore, to foster a respectful relationship with their children, parents must embody the respect they wish to instill.
In practice
In a parenting seminar discussing the influence of actions over words.
I recollected one story there was in the village, how that on a certain night in the year (it might be that very night for anything I knew), all the dead people came out of the ground and sat at the heads of their own graves till morning.
A silent look of affection and regard when all other eyes are turned coldly away-the consciousness that we possess the sympathy and affection of one being when all others have deserted us-is a hold, a stay, a comfort, in the deepest affliction, which no wealth could purchase, or power bestow.
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.
There are not a few among the disciples of charity who require, in their vocation, scarcely less excitement than the votaries of pleasure in theirs.
You might, from your appearance, be the wife of Lucifer,” said Miss Pross, in her breathing. “Nevertheless, you shall not get the better of me. I am an Englishwoman.
Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th of December to pick a man's pockets.
If you've never been hated by your child, you've never been a parent.
All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
My mother was the first woman in the county in Indiana where we were born, in Jay County, to have a college degree. She was educated as a pianist and she wanted to concertize, but when the war came she was married, had a family, so she started teaching.
Becoming a dad was the proudest moment of my life. Playing football does not even compare.
I had my Olympic gold medal cut up into eleven pieces. Gave all eleven of my kids a piece. It'll come together again when they put me down.
It's as if, in the mother's eyes, her smile, her stroking touch, the child first reads the message:'You are there!'
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