Father stories (aka: What did you learn from your father and/or as a father)

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7. I alluded to this

As I mentioned, my father's father was a hard-drinking gambling womanizing adult, and the subtext was that he was disciplinarian. On the (rarely) funny side of things, he whooped my father at age 6 or so for painting flowers on his new car

Whatever between my father and myself is between him and me, but, long story short, I resolved never to hit my son. I remember half-heartedly trying to spank him when he was 3 (or 2). I wasn't very good at it and it didn't last very long. In fact, I've figured out that if I speak really softly to him most of the time, that the few times I do raise my voice (only once or twice a year), it's *extremely* effective.