Fathers can be an infinite source of wisdom to their children, and we always look up to our dads and ask them for advice. Raising a child isn’t an easy thing to do, but it for sure is immensely rewarding.
The way parents raise their children will have a significant influence on their personality as they get older, and there are some things that are just perfect to learn via some quality father and son time. Here are twelve of those awesome and crucial things in life that dads should have to learn to their sons.
1. Always be helpful, gentle and polite
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Source: LDS
Granted, we always try to let our kids be as gentle and as polite as possible and giving them an angry-looking face whenever they scold or curse might help, but a dad can simply give the right example to their sons.
2. How to behave like a gentleman
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Source: Youforher
There’s a difference between being gentle and being a gentleman, but both are certainly important. Teach your son how to give people a proper and firm handshake, or how you should hold open doors for the people coming in behind you.
3. Experience life, don’t always capture it
In this modern day and age of smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches, kids are more than ever inclined to document all of their days by posting on social media, taking pictures at every occasion or by creating videos. While it’s certainly not a bad idea to digitally save a couple of memory, it’s important that dads also stress the importance of actually experiencing a beautiful instead of viewing it through the screen of a camera.
4. Teach them the value of money and how to handle it
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Source: CheatSheet
Sooner rather than later, kids will come into contact with money, but don’t really have an idea where it comes from or what the value of it is. They might think it’s just a method of getting them toys or ice cream for example, but it can’t hurt to explain how money works and that people have to work hard to earn their money. Kids will learn to appreciate the concept of money and not see it as abstract.
5. How to use a barbecue and grill food
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Source: Howstuffworks
Admittedly, it’s not recommended that you try this one out with younger kids, but if you’ve got a kid in his in teens, there’s nothing more fun than having some good old barbecue time with your dad. Teach them how to use a grill, how to spice your meat and how to create a delicious BBQ dish.
6. Playing all types of sports
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Source: Pigeon Frame
Giving your child a wide variety of sports to discover in his younger years will allow him to make a better decision. It’s also important that he plays both individual, two-person, and team-based sports in order to get a feeling for competition and teamwork.
7. How to use basic tools
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Source: Tethered2home
Hanging up a painting, drilling a hole in the wall, sawing a piece of wood: those are all things you’ve probably already done before and things sons would love to learn from their dads.
8. How to tie a tie (and other knots!)
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Source: Teach For America
Tying a tie is considered an art. It requires patience, perseverance, and lots of trial and error: all important traits for their adult lives. Tying a tie is an important skill for any boy to learn – both for personal and professional life.
Full windsor, half windsor, four in hand knot, pratt knot, and the list goes on… There’s plenty of choices here and it will most likely prove useful one day.
9. Teaching how to act in victory and defeat
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Source: Pixabay
Life comes with its ups and downs, whether it’s a competitive sports game or more severe circumstances. Defeat and failure are often unavoidable, but the important thing is teaching your son never to give up and to learn from mistakes.
10. Giving the example of the correct attitude towards women
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Source: NCF
Sons will look towards their fathers for support and advice, but they also look up to them and take an example. This one isn’t exactly something that you can teach directly to your son but is rather one that is learned over the years passively. Buying flowers for wives, sisters or family members, getting them presents and always talking politely are just a few ways of setting the right example.
11. How to stand up for yourself
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Source: Man of Steel, Warner Bros
Inevitably, we all encounter people who don’t share the same kindness that most of us do, which leads to conflict. Some people think kindness and strength don’t go hand in hand, but as a dad, you can explain to your son how to stand up for himself and always do the right thing.
12. How to express feelings and talk about love
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Source: AHDWallpapers
If there’s one subject that sons rather wouldn’t talk about with their fathers, it would be love. Expressing feelings or emotions can also be a challenging thing to do – so that’s why you should let your son know that this fantastic feeling of being in love is just perfectly normal and it happens to everyone. Talking about love not only enriches his later love life, but it also builds up a unique mutual trust between the two of you.
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Source: Brightside, Mark Merill, Family Life, Hammacher
