I recently read an article titled “50 rules for my unborn son,” and I’ve got to say, that was pretty great. It made me wonder what the most important things a young child should learn are.

 

I have one thought after reading the article though: did the author follow all of these pieces of sage advice as well as he hopes his son will? Probably not. I think all parents want life to be even better for their children than it was for them, and lots of those advantages in life come from making good decisions.

 

When the article says, “Don’t post online pictures that you wouldn’t want your grandma or your boss to see” I had to agree; that was good advice no matter what. If you think about it though, isn’t that basically the same as saying, “remember that God always knows what you are doing”?

 

Here is another one. “Never boo a referee; his mother might be in the audience next to you.”

 

Again, that is awesome advice.  I have learned similar lessons the hard way, but I think that that is another lesson that could be instilled in simply by remembering a divine parent. No?

 

“Respect fire”, “don’t raise your voice unless the house is on fire or you’re at the ballgame”, “try a hairstyle that you’re not sure of”… I don’t know if those have their roots in piety, but no one said that the correlation needed to be 100%.

 

What if the list needed to be summed down to one single rule? What would be the most critical wish for the child?

 

I think lots of parents would hope that a child could comprehend a parent’s love and everything that went along with it like, “If you get arrested, call home first. You get one free pass.” And if that doesn’t sound like a divine principal, I don’t know what does.

 

Jeff has written hundreds of articles about parenting, recreation and food. For more writing sample check these other sources.