NOISY CHILDREN

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 102, 27 October 1936, Page 17

NOISY CHILDREN

ENTERTAINMENT IPROBLEIVI

"When children are allowed to get into a state that seems similar to the auto-aroused excitement of some savage tribes the least remonstrance will bring tears (states, the ''Cape Times"). Parents.are ofteri puzzled by the swift change from shouts to tears when they find that the result of a casual rebuke t6'a:giddy, child seems to convict them of impati^ncei , ■ : There are weStfy•-'mothers who persuade tliemselves'that, as-'it is nearly bedtime there is no point in intervene ing, and who sit amidst the clamour until a final outcry galvanises them into the action 'Of "whipping'(metaphorically) the children off to bed, the latter in no mood for sleep and themselves in a state of dismay and jangleSnerves. ■.. ■..■ .-';■ ■ -- - ~.:... Children never en;joy noise for its own sake. Noisy parties are never successful; children go home tifed, with grievances, and without pleasant memories. It is the same with the children's hour on the wireless; a quiet programme is the mosf appreciated. It is so easy to avert most disasters for children, whether sickness or tears, by noticing which way the'wind is blowing, and it is so easy to recognise the direction. We can always measure children's reactions to some extent by our own; the majority of us do not feel impelled''to"'tell.'the world when we are happy. Wejnay go about humming and smiling more' or less idiotically, but we-feel no inclination to shout and clatter. Neither do children. The thoroughly happy child lias seldom any energy to spare for mere noise-making; he has, for one thing, usually a; look of absorption that comprises a' bitten lip and thus, makes whoops of joy unfeasible. But the tradition dies hard that a quiet child means a child in mischief, and the joke about sending someone to see what Tommy is doing and tell him not to is a fair example of a common attitude. It is, on the other hand, the noisy child who really needs intervention. He shouts and bangs, as a rule, from sheer boredom, killing time with noise when his games have grown stale, when his ingenuity is exhausted, because shouting and banging is at least something to do and needs no thought. A child cannot go on and on amusing himself, and sometimes to insist that he must "find something to do" is a form of cruelty that becomes evident only when he has tired of making a noise and has resorted to less pleasant methods of attracting attention to his plight . Unfortunately', though, adults take this yireltminary noisiness to mean that no <SKistance or suggestion is required.