I wish my daughter will look at me as Jem and Scout look at their father, Atticus Finch. There are a few things I have learned from him.

“Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me, and I’ve tried to live so I can look squarely back at him.” Atticus knows his kids are looking at him, observing what he does and learning from him. So he has to keep his head straight, do the right thing, no matter how ugly it is. Only that he can earn their kids’ respects.

You also need to understand the kids, and know how to give them a lesson when they did something wrong. So when Jem cut the tops off every camellia bush Mrs. Dubose owned because she said Atticus is a nigger lover, Atticus said to Jem, “Son, I have no doubt that you’ve been annoyed by your contemporaries about me lawing for niggers, as you say, but to do something like this to a sick old lady is inexcusable. I strongly advise you to go down and have a talk with Mrs. Dubose.” There is no harsh words, only advise. What a father!

And you also need to know when to not overreact to kids behaviors. When uncle Jack was mad at Scout speaking dirty words, Atticus was fine because he knows that “Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time when they learn they’re not attracting attention with it.”

Oh, you also have to have something which your kids can boast about. Atticus was the deadest shot in the county!

Mrs. Dubose is another figure in the book I found admirable. She was addictive to morphine because her doctor prescribed it as the pain-killer (similar tragedies happen pretty frequently in the U.S. today). When she knew that she only had a few months to live, she decided to break the addiction and die free! The process was unbearable, but she died “as the mountain air,” and was" conscious to the last". We all know that breaking a bad habit is very difficult, not mentioning the morphine addiction. Maybe it’s the time for us to say no to our own addictions, as Mrs. Dubose did, and to be a confident freeman?