A CURLED DARLING.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 273, 19 November 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

A CURLED DARLING.

The ' Effect of Maternal Coddling on

the Boy of the Period,

An assertive person writes in the Chicago if Mail" entertaingly, though perhaps mis. takenly, thus. It is food for thought, to be taken cum grano salis;

The mother of to-day is paying marked attention to her son. The girl has been leife to take care of herself. You don't believe this ? Look about you and see for yourself. In the vernacular of the street the mother of to-day is " mashed" on her boy. Hβ supplants his fathers place in many respects. He goes off to the watering-place 3 with his mother, while his sister is often sent to some friend or relation. The father stays at home—that goes without saying. The boy is not so expensive at the seaside, or wherever the place may be where hia mother has gone to cover up the crow'sfeet. He can take care of himself, and doesn't have to be mixed up in the train of mamma's teagown or evening dress. There is a growing impression that a daughter means more years for the mother. A mother talks about her son with apparent pride. When the daughter begins to crawl through the teens the mother is not apt to advertise the fact. The misfortune of all this is thab it is tending to make boys effeminate. From this the dude. A boy who grows up as the darling of his mamma wont " get there," as a rule. But if this be a misfortune there remains the consolation that the neglected girls, see that they must take care of themselves, become better women. The average boy of the present ia puny, nervous and dyspeptic. His mamma indulges him in caramels, cigarettes and late hours. She dotes on him. Our girls are growing healthier and are being developed. The boy goes out with his mother ; the eirl is sent to her music or her books or the gymnasium. The next generation of women will be creditable to the sex. Take a stroll on the street, go to the theatre, or go into society and look upon the effeminate specimens of masculinity; then shut, your eyes and see if you can imagine the result fifty years ahead.