Years ago when I was at university I started filing things for the future. Not the hope chest kind of things you will eat with or wrap your babies in, though I put some of those away as well, but advice that would help someday as a parent to know and practice. Among these was a file of ideas for raising teenagers. Imagine that! For example, the babysitter's handbook above from my own youth, that I thought would help my daughters when they began to tend for others. And through the years as my children were born and began to grow, and more came along, I was adding things to my file. And now here it is some 30+ years later and I came across this file. So much for good intentions and planing. We do our best.
Any way, my point - one article I saved was from 1985 about raising teenage boys. Among the much good advice was this line, which incidentally is just what I needed to know with my youngest son - "Just give him a large plate of something edible, and put your arm around his shoulders - keep it there well past the moment when he begins to squirm - and just let him know that you are there for him."
Let me just say that it works.
