This Is All You Can Want For Your Kids

<p><a href='https://dailydad.com/this-is-making-you-so-much-better/?utm_source=sendfox&amp;utm_medium=sendfox&amp;utm_campaign=all-you-can-want'>Douglas MacArthur was a complicated man</a>. He was ambitious. He was vain. He made many mistakes. It’s very unlikely that he was a perfect father. In fact, it’d be incredible if he had been, given <em>his</em> demanding, seemingly perfect father (a Civil War hero) and controlling, overly involved mother (who was actively involved in her son’s career up until her death in 1935). </p><p>But it is surprising that, given all that, Douglas MacArthur seemed relatively accepting of his quiet, sensitive boy. It was undoubtedly MacArthur’s dream to see his son graduate from West Point and enter the service. That was never going to happen. So MacArthur had to adjust, like all fathers he had to accept <a href='https://dailydad.com/welcome-to-unavoidable-reality/?utm_source=sendfox&amp;utm_medium=sendfox&amp;utm_campaign=all-you-can-want'>“undeniable reality,”</a>—something that could not have been easy for a man used to getting his way on a global scale. </p><p>This was a learning experience for MacArthur as it will be for all of us. It forced him to think about measuring life on different terms, certainly terms different than his own parents had thought about. <a href='https://www.nytimes.com/1964/04/06/archives/macarthur-leaves-a-spiritual-legacy-prayer-for-his-son.html'>We get a sense of this from a “prayer” he wrote one evening</a> for his only child, his son, Arthur:</p><p><em>“Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.</em></p><p><em>Build me a son whose wishes will not take the place of deeds; a son who will know Thee — and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge.</em></p><p><em>Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties a