The Church
Family Life
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Children
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in spite of all that is wonderful about children, we must recognize that because they are human, they have inherited an inclination to sin. Whether it takes the form of lying, stealing, a lack of reverence for parents and educators, or sexual impurity, evil must be fought in every child. We must be careful not to spoil our children, even from a very early age. It harms a child’s character to bring him up indulgently. Flabbiness is a sign of selfish ness, and selfishness always leads to sin. Softness can also arise through an unhealthy emotional relationship between a child and his parent or educator. How to fight against sin in children is a very difficult question. If there are indecencies, for example, which mostly begin with children exposing themselves to each other and sometimes touching each other, the child will feel instinctively that this is not right. These indecencies almost always involve lying. We must be careful not to make too much of such things among children. It may only draw their attention to the sexual area all the more. The best thing, perhaps, is to give them a small punishment and so close the matter, and then help them to think of other things. We grown-ups too easily forget that many things do not mean the same to a child as they do to us, and we must never project our ideas and feelings and experi ences onto a child’s mind. We must also never forget that it is in a certain way natural for children to go