Parenting advice

President Joseph F. Smith (ed. -5th President of the Church), told fathers they should love their children if they want them to be obedient: “Prove to them that you do love them by your every word or act to them. … When you speak or talk to them, do it not in anger, do it not harshly, in a condemning spirit. Speak to them kindly; get them down and weep with them if necessary and get them to shed tears with you if possible. Soften their hearts; get them to feel tenderly toward you. Use no lash and no violence, but … approach them with reason, with persuasion and love unfeigned. … You can’t do it any other way. You can’t do it by unkindness; you cannot do it by driving. …

“You can’t force your boys, nor your girls into heaven. You may force them to hell, by using harsh means in the efforts to make them good, when you yourselves are not as good as you should be. The man that will be angry at his boy, and try to correct him while he is in anger, is in the greatest fault. … You can only correct your children by love, in kindness, by love unfeigned, by persuasion, and reason” (Gospel Doctrine, fifth ed., Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1939, pp. 316–17).