A friend once said to me: “So long as my children were little,
I lived at peace with my faults and bad habits. Perhaps they
were annoying to others, but they caused me no uneasiness. But
since my children have grown up, I am ashamed to meet their
eyes, for I know they judge me, observe my attitude, my manner
of acting, and measure my words. Nothing escapes them; neither
the little ‘white lie,’ nor my illogical reasoning; neither
unjustifiable irritation, nor any of the thousand imperfections
I formerly indulged in. I require now to be constantly on my
guard, and what will finally happen is this, that, instead
of my having trained them, my children will have formed my
character.”--DORA MELEGARI, “Makers of Sorrow and
Makers of Joy.”
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