NERVES AND TEMPER.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LVIII, Issue 66, 20 August 1937, Page 3

NERVES AND TEMPER.

Of course, now and then everyone 'jets in a temper. Tempers must have exercise and often they have useful

work to do. They can be handy in the home. The way I try to increase peace and justice in my own home is not by suppressing temperaments or rightful anger or argument, but by insisting that no one can take his ill-temper out on anyone else who is not responsible for the cause of it. Nobody should tolerate in himself or in others that bullying which is sometimes done by the young as well as the older members of the family, in the effort to find a whipping boy for irritations. Yet such bullying is not only common, but actually excused as the inevitable reaction of "nerves." We should not use our nerves to terrify the helpless people who have to go on living- with us. We talk sometimes as if our nerves were strange devils that took possession of us, and that's great nonsense. Except in unusual cases, our nerves behave pretty much as we have trained them to behave. If they know they can go on the loose every few days, or every six months, and that people will be indulgent and say that it wasn't their fault, then of course they'll go on the loose. But the obvious thing is that the really indispensable people in the world, the real workers, never do that. For one thing, they can't spare the time, and for another, they're too honest. They have more nerve than nerves. So that is where a good job for parents comes in. If your children are not going to go through life blaming their nerves for their failures, they should not be allowed to think that the existence of a nervous system justifies letting down of obligations or the dodging of responsibilities. They should be taught that when nerves are under control and properly functioning they build up that totality called "nerve," the personal resource that sees most of us through dangers and difficulties.