•The best stories have a point. "That's when I first learned how important it is to be on time." "If it hadn't rained that day, we might never have met, and most of you would never have been born!" It doesn't have to be profound, but be prepared to help your tellers wrap up their stories with a short statement of its significance.

•Get younger ones involved too -- perhaps you can encourage them to be official family historians who will record stories. If there's a group, give them papers and drawing materials and ask them to make pictures of scenes they will hear unfold. You can have older ones label drawings and then gather them together with ribbon. Each family can take home their personal family album.

•If there are old photographs that support an account, or a time period, mount these in archive quality materials and display them in a shady spot or pass them around while story is being told. Use other mementos as well. Your great-grandfather's railroad watch that he wore to work every day for 45 years, or a playbill from your first date will help bring life to accounts of those special times.

So gather your loved ones on your porch or patio and make some memories while you start a storytelling tradition

3. Be careful about showcasing child. There are far too many kids who receive no positive attention from anyone. There seems to be a growing number of parents, however, who make every interaction between their child and themselves a public event, a look-at-me-and/or-my-child situation. Thus, child begins to think that world revolves around him (her).

4. Expect best. Parents who expect first haircut to be "a piece of cake" are often rewarded. Similarly, by our words and actions we must always let our kids know we believe in them and expect best from them. It propels them toward success.

BARBER-OSOPHY: Though there are no perfect parents or perfect children, it's easy to spot parents who are genuinely trying to get it right. Copyright 2004, Sumerlin Enterprises.

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