Character

Building Character

Character is a difficult word to define, so I am not going to try. Suffice to say, that having a strong character (rather than being a character) is an important life skill to develop.

My dad was very into character. At every turn in my childhood, he insisted that I make certain choices, which would help "build character." Poor guy. Both of us, unfortunately for him, were and most certainly are, characters. From breaking neighbor's prized vases, to taking our pet rats to the shopping center to scare patrons, to coercing unsuspecting neighbouring children to eat peanut butter mixed with freshly cut grass - heehee, this ones on me at age 14 .

So, my father took some very definite steps to assure that his characters would develop character. Here are some of the things he did:

1. He thought it was a grand idea for me to take on a job making coffee at 17. He especially liked the idea of my working $ 1.65 per hour with a grumpy old woman who bossed me around.

2. We all had very specific weekly household chores to do. My father believed that children who were not asked to do some work around the house, didn't have a true sense of belonging to a family. If the chores were not completed, we were grounded.

3. We had to be very respectful to all adults and had to call them Uncle and Aunty in addition to saying please and thank you. Even when "the neighborhood witch" would yell at us for walking we had to say we were sorry.

4. We had to write thank you notes to our grandparents, aunts, and uncles anytime they did something nice for us. With due respect to my mother, this was her idea. To this day, she writes thank you notes for thank you notes.

5. Dad insisted that we be exposed to the following activities: Sport, running, reading, talking, more sport.

Dad believed that even with our family focus on academic success and university goals, real character is often built in other ways.

And as I look back on my life, I must agree.

Thanks, Dad.