FAMILY FALLACIES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 126, 24 November 1923, Page 16

FAMILY FALLACIES

DANGEROUS TRADITIONS THAT HAMPER THE YOUNG.

Have you ever thought that dangerous things.family traditions are? .asks a Writer in the "Westminster Gazette." Most of us suffer, or have suffered, all our lives -.from- -them and their- unfairness. Their origins, too, are pathetically trifling whea you consider that they are fraught with such far-reaching results A mother of two little girls wiU be heard Sfyrog to a friend in their: presence: .Jilollie as going: to be the of the family—but Elinor is a real little housewife and my right hand- aren't you, dear?" Thus,the seeds are sown, and the reiteration of these fallacies from time to time waters them, till they have grown into the hard-and-fast traditions with which we are far too familrar.. As. a matter of-fact; in nine, cases out of ten, if you trouble to inquire into it, you will find that the love of domesticity, allocated to Elinor exist entirely on her family's imagination, and that only-her-unselfishness and desire to-help *?-?-?? v^K to the- ™a?y uncongenial household tasks wliich, as they are her metier,, are allocated .to., her. And so wifch-Mollie.;- -The gift of music with which the family have endower her is nothing r more-.or. less, .when probed, than a, .certain, nimbleness in fingering the keys added to a selfish, delight in making herself .heard and thereby avoiding other > and.less pleasant occupations. But it is believed thai she is a musician—the belief fostered, by: the family,.of course; and no: one. would, have the courage to contradict it. Indeed, it is hightlyprob-abla-that-Elißor-ma-y-iave the real- soul of r music, : and Mollie a"knack" for cookmgr Anyhow, when you are faced with a: family -legend, you will. be quite safe Sfcc-doubt, it.