THE CHILD-MIND

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 51, 1 March 1930, Page 19

THE CHILD-MIND

LESSONS IN THE HOME

(By "La Femme.")

How soon can a child begin to understand? Parents arc almost unanimously agreed that it is, to say the least of it, unwise to discuss their children .in the presence of the children themselves; yet this mistake is being made

daily. The trouble arises from the fact that mothers find their children, when tiny, the most engrossing topic of conversation. They relate to their friends his tricks, his cunning ways, how he can almost stand alone—all this in front of tho child himself. The point is: When does the child ccaso to act wliolly _by instinct and begin to develop a reasoning mind? He very soon learns to ~ know that he is being discussed; the desire to draw more attention to him- ' self naturally becomes predominant, and so, commences that objectionable ' behaviour known as '.'showing off." 'There are mothers-who speak before their children rather as though they , were deaf-mutes; but nine times out .of.ten, the kiddie is sharp enough to ' comprehend most of the conversation. "Do you know, I found Timmy away down the street to-day. He had actually climbed right over that high gate— how he did it, goodness knows—and had gone all by himself as far as the corner." And Timmy, who gathers that lie must'have done an extremely clever thing, naturally prefers renown to obscurity and continues to do it, un- ' til his mother is, by her own confess- ,-, ion,- driven nearly to distraction. And ; one cannot help feeling, when tho inevitable whipping arrives, that Timmy is not entirely to blame in tho whole affair. Timmy probably feels this too. Children do-not,'as a rule, pay much attention to the conversation of their elders unless it nearly concerns - themselves; yet a chance phrase or word by no means intended for them will often catch their fancy. Thus father has been known to. remark incautiously: "My — listen to that wind!" and suf? fer. a" severe shock when three-years-old echoes softly: "My —, listen to dat wind!" It is then impressed upon the child that thai is one'of the things lie must riot say, and as a result, he treasures it in his small brain as, something extremely naughty, and therefore to be well guarde_d.' Probably he will produce it, to his mother's shocked discomfiture, upon the day that grandmother arrives, or the vicar comes to tea. . '■.. It is usually on such occasions that he will want to create his small impression. Some well-meaning people discreetly lower their voices during a conversation not intended for childish ears, and these ears prick up at once, though the children may have been ignoring the talk up to -that point. Children are curious to a degree, and they immediately turn over and puzzle out in

their _ small ibrains subjects of which

they are supposed to hare no knowi& 1; le3ge: at all. It is small wonder that there are precocious children- while there are still careless, unthinking, or forgetful parents V.. "I hate the thought of sending my child to school. Th gy piclt up such dreadful ,= expressions and ' language there, and they hear things they shouldn't." How often one hears that said; yet even with the most careful of parents, anxiety upon this score, like charity, should begin at home.