Hehe - for me becoming a father at the age of 19 was about the best thing in my life, but I really can't recommend it to anyone =) So, it is lot more typical to have small kids at the age of fortysomething, and that's fine.

I think a lot of good parenting comes down to the difference between telling and showing. I often felt that my own parents told us kids a thing "X" but in the daily life with their own actions our parents always showed us an example of "non-X", and that was a contradiction. And the daily example has a lot more impact than mere verbal teachings. In my own fatherhood I tried to do that differently, always asking myself what kind of example I'm showing with my own behaviour. So, yup, just like you say - to set a positive example.