A matter of no less importance is that parents should beware lest any feelings of jealousy which they themselves may harbour with regard to the children, should be allowed to exercise an undue influence over their own conduct. There is less excuse for the existence of such feelings in the parent than there is in the child, inasmuch as the former possesses, or should possess, greater integration and maturity of mind and a more thorough understanding of the nature of his acts and of their consequences; and in addition there is less real cause for jealousy, since the parent is himself responsible for the child's existence, and since, with the superior capacities of the adult, he has less need--at any rate within a happy marriage--to fear the child as a serious rival for the affections of his partner. [Sidenote: By suitable measures the friction between parents and children can be greatly reduced, though never entirely abolished] In spite of all such precautions however, it is probable that it will always prove an impossibility to prevent altogether the arousal of some degree of hostility on the part of the child towards the parent of his own sex. The nature of the antagonism between the two individuals in question is too deeply rooted in human motives and human institutions to be without some consequences even under the most favourable circumstances. All that can reasonably be hoped for is that such degree of jealousy as may be unavoidable may throughout be held in check by feelings of affection, and that it may eventually pass away, with the gradual weaning of the child from the exclusive direction of its love towards the other parent.