"And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." (Eph. 6:4)

I heard of a situation once where the oldest daughter in a family wanted a dresser for her room; thus, she worked at part-time jobs and pinched pennies until she was able to buy herself a dresser. When she bought the dresser and brought it home, her younger sister began to whine and cry because she didn't have a dresser like her sister. To make the younger daughter happy, and cause her to stop her whining, her parents went and bought her a dresser like her sister's.

The parents committed a grave error here. First, such was unfair to the older girl who had to work hard to obtain a dresser. Second, they were teaching the younger daughter that the way one obtain things is by whining and crying.

Prov. 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it."