HANDLING OF CHILDREN

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12750, 4 January 1936, Page 2

HANDLING OF CHILDREN

THE ’’MOLLYCODDLING” MENACE. LONDON, Nov. 9. The problems of parenthood especially that of handling children when they are very young, is easily the most popular subject of the lectures given at the. Institute of Medical Psychology in London. “We discovered this as a result of the series of lectures last year and the hundreds of inquiries we have received from parents as to when we shall lie giving another series,” the secretary of the institute told an interviewer. ,It has therefore been arranged by the institute for Dr. Emanuel Miller to hold another series of lectures on this subject every Tuesday evening for the next eight weeks at the institute’s headquarters.

Dr. Miller said: “The lectures I have arranged are to guide parents in the handling oF children. There is a very large percentage of parents today who never gain the confidence of their children.

“Children can be doomed to failure by parents’ ‘mollycoddling’ and others may suffer fi'om nervousness for the rest, of their lives as a result of too strict parents. My talks will be in the nature of advice to young mothers,” he added. A few of the symptoms of nervousness which should be looked for in the young, child were explained by Dr. Miller. There was the case of tlio excessively boisterous child who needs careful study.

“As a rule, this kind of child is suffering from a feeling of anxiety and :fear,”,- he said. ,“The restless child is another type which should not be overlooked.

’“Restlessness is a serious symptom of disharmony, a feeling of anxiety and insecurity which results in later life in the inability to do one’s best, inability to be happy, and inability to adjust oneself to marriage.” These were largely the outcome of mishandling and the lack of understanding in the early years of life.