WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A PARENT

• Read to your children.
• Keep your promises.
• Go for walks together.
• Let your children help with household projects.
• Spend time one-on-one with each child.
• Tell your children about your own childhood.
• Go to the zoo, museums, and ball games as a family.
• Set a good example.
• Use good manners.
• Help your children with their homework.
• Show your children lots of warmth and affection.
• Set clear, consistent limits.
• Consider how your decisions will affect your children.
• Listen to your children.
• Know your children's friends.
• Take your children to work.
• Open a savings account for college education.
• Resolve conflicts quickly.
• Take your children to your place of worship.
• Make a kite together.
• Fly a kite together.
• You get the idea.

Adapted from What it Takes to be a Dad, with permission:
National Fatherhood Initiative
101 Lake Forest Boulevard, Suite 360; Gaithersburg, MD 20877
Phone: (301)948-0599
Fax: (301)948-4325
1-800-790-DADS
www.fatherhood.org