SENSIBLE PARENTS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 331, 19 October 1908, Page 3

SENSIBLE PARENTS.

Some years ago, a man with a family of six boys, varying in age from nine years to • twenty-one, thought he saw sighs of an unsuitable friendship in the manner and behaviour of his eldest- son (says an American journal). ~ .Without hesitation he faced the problem and discussed tho method of procedure with his wife •"J'om the moment I realised this now danger," said this man years afterwards to a friend, "there was never a week passed but our house was brightened by the presence of somgirl friends and relatives, any one of whom would have made an admirable daughter-in-law. "It cost, us a little trouble and money,.but my wife and 1 both realised that it was tho most important part of our life's duty at that , time. In a few weeks the unsuitable friendship .was dropped, and in less than six months my eldest son had become engaged to a girl who has since proved herself to be all that we could wish, and later on all my'sons made marriages that I can only regard with the.' utmost and intensest-satisfaction."

All through, the average parents' life is one of sacrifice on- behalf of tne children.When a couple have. been ■ married for twenty or thirty years, and have done their utmost to equip their children for the battle, of life, it may seem to be asking too much of them to add a little further to the long list of brave and good actions that they have done by permitting the peace of 'their home to be broken up, and by saving and economising yet a little more to arrange that they may keep open house.

But; the father or'mother who forgets this important duty of helping in the selection of their children's life partner is neglecting one of life's-greatest responsibilities. ' Iri; mixed "families, where there are girls and boys, the difficulty is never such a great but where the family consists of all daughters or all sons, or where there is a strong prponderan'ce .of either one sex or the other, then the parents' duty is something that must not be shirked. '