It must be recognised that the elementary school child has reached an age of understanding. As such, parents should act as role-models in helping them to become socially acceptable. Children between the ages of seven to twelve are able to appreciate and evaluate values such as honesty, courtesy and fair-play. In fact they have an extremely sensitive reaction to what is fair and acceptable.

In my conversations with parents of teenagers, I often hear remarks like "It's so stressful having a teenager at home," or "They drive me up the wall," or "They annoy me to no end," or "My son locks himself in the room and ignores my knocks on the door. What shall I do? Shall I just ignore him and let him be?