Modesty Is Best Learned From A Young Age

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – I’m rearing daughters; many of you are rearing sons.  The Earl of Chesterfield’s Letters to his Son, who he refers to as “boy,” read some of the Earl of Chesterfield — you can find it at MikeChurch.com.  The Earl tries to teach his son, who is a bastard, by the bye — another word we need to bring back — he tries to teach the son, through letters, how he ought to behave and how he ought to conduct his affairs as a young gentleman.  Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  Let me get back to Steve in Louisiana.  Thanks for your patience, my friend.  You were going to tell us, in relation to the Utah dad that cut his jeans down to make them short-shorts and teach his daughter a lesson about wearing short-shorts in public, you were going to tell us something that your mother used to tell you.

Caller Steve:  She told me about years ago, back in the late ‘30s, early ‘40s when she was a little girl, that her mom was always complaining to her brother and dad about coming to the lunch table after working outside in all the heat.  Of course, there was no air conditioning.  They would come in with no shirts on and come to the lunch table to eat.  My grandmother got tired of asking them to put their shirts on, so one day she showed up with no top and just her bra on for lunch.  They got the message, immediately got up from the table and put their shirts on, and never came back to the lunch table without their shirts on again.

Mike:  That’s one way to teach the lesson.

Caller Steve:  I thought that’s pretty smart.  My grandmother was a really smart lady and I figure this dad is pretty smart too to use that approach.

Mike:  I think the ultimate proof of his sagacity or lack of it will be how his daughter dresses in the future.  If there’s a follow-up story and she’s not wearing short-shorts, which, by the way, have things printed on them now.  Am I the only one that notices that as well?  I bet Andrew notices this but not in the fashion in which you and I are noticing it, Steve.  The company called Pink, I think it’s called, where do they print “Pink” on women’s wear?

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AG:  You would say the backside.  Isn’t that like a Victoria’s Secret offshoot brand?

Mike:  I don’t know.  I just know that I see young girls running around with “Pink” printed on their derrieres.  That would be one of the things I would tell little Madison or Reagan Church: You are not walking out of this house with that on.  That is not going to happen.

Mike Church Show Transcript – Young Girls Today Need More Short-Shorts Dads And Fewer Billy Ray Cyruses

Caller Steve:  Mike, I’ve been very fortunate with my children.  I never had to tell them that.  They grew up being very modest themselves.  I never really had to have that argument with my kids.

Mike:  That’s probably because you set a modest example.  If you set a modest example, then they’ll probably grow up to be modest because that’s what they know, which is why this whole idea here that you can parent by social media or that you can be an absentee parent and not teach or act out traditions and what have you, I just think it’s ridiculous.  Where’s the proof that this works?  Steve, thank you very much for your phone call.

I’m rearing daughters; many of you are rearing sons.  The Earl of Chesterfield’s Letters to his Son, who he refers to as “boy,” read some of the Earl of Chesterfield — you can find it at MikeChurch.com.  We’ve re-published many of the Earl of Chesterfield’s letters.  You can find all of those letters published at Gutenberg Press, which has the world’s largest collection of public domain literary works that you’ll find anywhere.  They have all his letters.  The Earl tries to teach his son, who is a bastard, by the bye — another word we need to bring back — he tries to teach the son, through letters, how he ought to behave and how he ought to conduct his affairs as a young gentleman.

That’s something else that I stumbled upon in the course of editing the upcoming release for the first time in a modern format, and in modern formats like Kindle, ePub, PDF and in hardback and paperback editions, of Moses Coit Tyler’s Patrick Henry American Statesmen.  As I was looking and adding new material to the Henry book, I wrote a chapter in the book about Patrick Henry in art.  I will shock the world by alerting the planet that the image they think they have of Patrick Henry is not an image of Henry.  It is actually an image of a famous English sailing captain.  It’s all in the book.

The Virtue of Learning-Earl of Chesterfield

One of the things I stumbled upon was that in his pursuit of virtuous public, gentlemanly behavior, one of his acquaintances said that Henry never laughed in public, ever.  One of the letters the Earl of Chesterfield wrote to his son was about laughing in public and how you should not do it.  It was not becoming of a gentleman to laugh in public.  I don’t have the letter here in front of me to explain why, but it’s one of those traditions and customs that obviously is not adhered to any longer, otherwise I would probably not be laughing as much as I do in the daily conduct of this radio program.  I think much of that has to do with how young men are raised and the example that is set for them.  If you run around dressed like Jimmy Buffett all the time, it’s a fairly good bet your son is going to want to run around dressed like Jimmy Buffett all the time when he becomes aged.

End Mike Church Show Transcript

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