WOMAN’S WORLD.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2486, 21 June 1909, Page 8

WOMAN’S WORLD.

HELPERS’ MOTTO.

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else.”—Dickens.

BE CAREFUL HOW YOU ENTERTAIN

.BABY.

Never try to entertain a baby too vigorously. Little babies especially, but also children somewhat older, should never be subjected to unnecessary excitement. Older people seldom realise how exceedingly undeveloped the nervous system of a little child is, and any undue shock to it is apt to cause the direst consequences. A child of two has_ been thrown into a high fever at a Christmas entertainment. The lighted tree, the guests and presents and the general noise and good cheer worked her into such an excited state that she was on the verge of collapse by bedtime, and the doctor had to be summoned. The poor little girl had been handed about from uncle to aunt, and from friend to friend; one present after another had burst upon her vision until she shrieked with a'sort of semi-hysteria which her indulgent young parents took for joy. Do not take very small children to the theatre or the circus. They don’t understand it and they can’t enjoy it. Pleasures for these little ones should be wholesome and sensible, and the dangers of excitement cannot be over-estimated. Their minds, so ready to receive impressions, should receive only the best and most beneficial —the wholesome, open-air play in the park or the country, not too much Company, nor too much noise, nor too many toys. Of course, there must be noise where there are children, but it is the noise of children and not of grown people; it is of children who are not specially noticing each other, but all playing together after the manner of children. It is the little only child who becomes a nervous wreck from the noise of his elders and their incessant conversation which turns for ever on one subject—himself.