BY BARBARA LARIMORE | COLUMNIST

One of the best sermons about fathers and sons I ever heard was by a preacher in Morristown, Tennessee many years ago. I have thought about that sermon many times. “Bring your son to your work.” The gist of it was if you are working on the car, have your son by your side to help in ways that he can. It is a lesson of father to son. Neil, having all girls, continually had them help with washing the car, or help stack firewood (there are some hilarious movies of these events). Our oldest daughter would sometimes stomp her feet, and say, “This is boys’ work!”

During the girls’ school years, Neil cooked breakfast each morning. At some point he began to have them take turns cooking breakfast — those breakfast meals were pretty scant sometimes. Of course, the same can be said about mothers and daughters. Sometimes it is just the open communication between the two. I will always remember a friend’s advice ... when your daughter comes into the kitchen wanting to “talk”... just keep peeling potatoes and listen. It seems that it was not so easy for me to include the girls in my sewing or in my cooking. They were always off and running to the next school event. They were good at doing frozen fish sticks in the oven! When my oldest daughter was about to be married she wanted to know how to make some of the family dishes. We had a “crash course” in making several casserole-style dishes, and away she went to her new life as a wife and homemaker. After a while, her husband asked, “Do you know how to cook anything without cheese?”

Back to fathers and sons: I saw this statement somewhere, and think it says it all about fathers and sons … “Small boys become big men through the influence of big men who care about small boys.”

Happy Father’s Day!