EXTRAVAGANT CHILDREN.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 103, 4 May 1927, Page 6

EXTRAVAGANT CHILDREN.

The warning given by the master of the Te Aro School in regard to the clanger of giving children too much money to spend &a they please is timely. Over-indulgence of children is one of the first things to attract the notice of visitors to our shores. Parental discipline is almost unknown in many homes, and not only are the children indulged in every whim and fancy, but they totally disregard any attempt the parents may make towards controlling them. This is partly due to the fact that some parents take the line of least resistance, and find it easier to give in to a child than to control it, and partly to a natural, but misguided, desire to give the children pleasure and enjoyment. Many parents do not reflect that they are laying up trouble for themselves in the future, and making adult life more difficult for their children. Indulgence in sweets and other things is frequently seen in families which can ill afford it, and even times of financial depression seem to make little difference to the amount spent by the younger members of a family. Children see others spending freely, and feel injured if they are not allowed to do the same. In some cases this leads to petty thefts, and children thus take the first steps along the path of dishonesty. In the large public schools of England, wnere the sons of the wealthy classes are educated, the pocket money of the boys is very strictly limited. At one school the boys in the preparatory department used to be allowed only threepence a week; in the junior school they were allowed sixpence; and in the senior school they were limited to a shilling. This applied even .to boys of sixteen and seventeen years of age.- Probably the allowances are not much, if at all, greater to-day. Somewhat similar rules are enforced,at many of our boarding schools. The old plan of a halfpenny a day pocket, money for all children under twelve may have erred on the side of parsimony, but It was preferable to the modern plan of a shilling or half-a-erown whenever a child asks for it. „•■