How my father gave me a terrifying lesson at 10
My version of this, with my Dad, was when I was precocious 16 year old, failing highschool because I was spending all my time hacking code, smoking pot, and girlfriends.  Not a bit of schoolwork was being done, and my Dad was having none of it.<p>So he gave me a summer job.  In the hot Australian sunshine, I was sent off to be a labourer on building sites.  Since I was the young blood, the brickies and other construction types gave me the shit jobs .. moving piles of bricks from one end of the universe to the other, shovelling shit from one end of the universe to the other, getting lunch and ciggies and mud and bricks to the brickies from one end of the universe to the other.  It was monotonous, hot, boring work, and I hated getting up at 5am every day just to get there on time, and work until the sun went down every day, just to go to bed in time to get up again and start moving shit from one end of the universe to the other.<p>It did teach me a lesson, and that lesson - which dear reader I hope you understand - is that work is good for you.  It expands your universe and gives you a life beyond the realms of the little box we're otherwise born with.<p>So, at the end of summer, I took my hard-earned wages, bought myself a new computer, got back to hacking, split up with my girlfriend, and got myself the hell out of that situation.<p>And I've never looked back.<p>Well, now I look back .. because now I'm the Dad, and more than anything else in the world I want my kids to grow up knowing that hard work is good for you, but smart work is better.  Don't know how its going to happen, but that's the joy of fatherhood, innit ..