Thought for the day.

Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you. -H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Want to raise kind children? Be kind to your children.

Respect children because they're human beings and they deserve respect, and they'll grow up to be better people.

What you do to children matters. And they might never forget.

When you put faith, hope and love together, you can raise positive kids in a negative world.

Be nice to your children. After all, they are going to choose your nursing home.

Instead of raising children who turn out okay despite their childhood, let’s raise children who turn out extraordinary because of their childhood.

Reconcile those who are at strife, prevent lawsuits; incline children to duty, fathers to kindness; promote happy marriages; prevent annoyances; freely use the credit of your pupil’s parents on behalf of the weak who cannot obtain justice, the weak who are oppressed by the strong. Be just, human, kindly.

Children, as persons, are entitled to the greatest respect. Children are given to us as free-flying souls, but then we clip their wings like we domesticate the wild mallard. Children should become the role-models for us, their parents, for they are coated with the spirit from which they came- out of the ether, clean, innocent, brimming with the delight of life, aware of the beauty of the simplest thing; a snail, a bud....

The best way to make children good is to make them happy.

Kids wake up each day believing in the goodness of things, in the magic of what might be. They’re uncynical, believers at their core. We owe it to them to stay strong and keep working to create a more fair and humane world. For them, we need to remain both tough and hopeful, to acknowledge that there’s more growing to be done.

At a certain point, your life is more about your legacy to your kids than anything else.

The most effective way to raise a nice child is to be a nice adult.

Whatever their temperament, if children are part of your life, encourage them to pause for a moment at the end of the day (or at any other natural interval, such as the last minute before the school bell) to remember what went well and think about things that make them happy (e.g., a pet, their parents’ love, a goal scored in soccer). Then have those positive feelings and thoughts sink in.